House » AIRLINE NEWS » United Airways A320 Survives Fowl Strike Mid-Touchdown, Safely Touching Down At Santa Barbara Airport Making certain Passenger Safety Amid An Surprising Disaster
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
A United Airways Airbus A320 safely landed at Santa Barbara Airport after ingesting 15 birds throughout descent, with no accidents reported amongst passengers or crew.
A United Airways Airbus A320 made a profitable touchdown at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) on March 22, 2025, after its engine reportedly ingested 15 small birds throughout the descent.
Incident OverviewThe plane, an Airbus A320-200 with the registration N457UA, was working flight UA 671 from Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN) to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA). The chook ingestion occurred throughout the touchdown part. Luckily, the flight, which had 150 passengers and 6 crew members onboard, landed with out additional incident.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the main points of the occasion to The Aviation Herald. The plane concerned is 25.3 years previous and has an intensive flying historical past. In response to knowledge from ch-aviation fleets, the Airbus A320-200 can accommodate as much as 150 passengers throughout three cabin lessons: 12 in enterprise class, 42 in financial system plus, and 96 in financial system class. By the tip of 2024, the aircraft had gathered a complete of 75,232 flight hours and 32,344 flight cycles.
The Airbus A320 had already been on a number of flights on the day of the incident. Previous to the chook strike occasion, it operated a route from Santa Ana John Wayne Airport (SNA) to Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN), based on Flightradar24.
This incident follows the same chook strike occasion involving one other United Airways A320-200 earlier in March 2025 at Chicago O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD). After taking off from Runway 29R, the crew reported a possible chook strike and requested to cease climbing at 5,000 toes. The plane, carrying 129 passengers and 5 crew members, returned to O’Hare, the place it landed safely roughly 20 minutes after departure.
The Security Dangers of Fowl StrikesBird strikes, although unusual, can current severe security hazards, akin to engine failure, structural injury, and even catastrophic accidents. Probably the most notable chook strike incidents in historical past is US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency touchdown within the Hudson River after a chook strike shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport in 2009. Though 5 folks have been injured, there have been no fatalities.
Aviation security authorities and airports implement numerous chook management measures, akin to wildlife administration, radar monitoring, and habitat modifications, to cut back the danger of such strikes. Pilots are additionally skilled to handle chook strike situations, together with how to answer engine failure. Flight simulators enable pilots to observe dealing with these conditions.
If a chook strike happens throughout takeoff earlier than the plane reaches the choice pace (V1), pilots might abort the takeoff if it’s unsafe to proceed. Nonetheless, if the strike occurs after V1, the plane should proceed the takeoff and assess the state of affairs earlier than making any additional selections.
