Both military and civilian aviation have advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few decades, with powerful engines, sharper sensors, and tougher materials. However, one stubborn, feathered foe refuses to get the memo: bird strikes that continue to shred airframes and, in some rare cases, cause fatal crashes.
In one such incident, an American Airlines Boeing 737 struck a bird or flock of birds on its takeoff from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, starting a fire in the engine and prompting an emergency landing.
American Flight 1760 was headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, with 181 people onboard, when the incident took place.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday. We’ve got an engine problem here,” the pilot was heard saying shortly after taking off in a recording from LiveATC.net.
“I saw he took up birds, it looked like, at least in the left side engine,” another pilot present in the cockpit reportedly said on the radio.
As the aircraft circled to return, operations personnel found bird remains on the runway.
“We’ve got a lot of bird debris out here. We’re going to grab as many big pieces as we can, they apparently said on the radio, further confirming a bird hit.
Such remains, known as snarge, are routinely sent to the Smithsonian Institution’s laboratory in Washington, D.C., for species identification. The resulting data helps airports and operators understand which birds are being struck and refine prevention measures.
Bird strikes continue to pose one of the most persistent threats to aviation of all kinds. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s database, more than 24,000 wildlife strikes were reported in the United States in 2025 alone.
Most of these strikes apparently occur at low altitude during takeoff, climb, approach, or landing phases when aircraft are most exposed. They often affect components such as engines, wings/rotors, the nose or radome, the windshield, and the fuselage. Although most of these incidents cause little or no damage and are fatal mainly to the bird(s), they could be fatal when they affect critical systems mid-flight or during critical phases.
Engine ingestion, for one, is a particularly serious issue with bird strikes.
In some cases, large birds or flocks of birds can get sucked into jet engines, causing compressor stalls, power loss, or dual-engine failure, which could be fatal. Notably, modern Turbofan engines are certified to withstand ingestion of birds of specified sizes, and multi-engine aircraft are designed to continue safe flight after the loss of one engine.
However, multiple-engine ingestion or damage to critical engine components could severely damage the aircraft or potentially cause a crash.
Additionally, bird strikes can cause structural or control damage. For instance, an impact at high speed could damage windshields, radomes, wings, or control surfaces, impair visibility or handling, or, in rare cases, even contribute to a loss of control.
In December 2024, Jeju Air Flight 2216—a Boeing 737-800 aircraft en route from Bangkok to Muan International Airport, South Korea—struck a flock of Baikal teals migratory ducks on approach.
Both engines ingested birds, and the crew declared Mayday, attempted a go-around, and finally attempted a belly landing. However, the aircraft overran, struck a localizer structure, and was completely destroyed. 179 of 181 people died in the accident.
Similarly, in November 2022, a Delta Air Lines Airbus A320 was descending through 13,000ft when it was struck in the cockpit by several large birds. The impact purportedly “sounded like a bomb going off,” the captain of the flight later told the National Transportation Safety Board.
“The cockpit door blew open, and a panel blew down from the cockpit aft overhead panel area,” he added. “We also started having a rapid decompression after the impact. The wind noise was extreme and made communication difficult, but I yelled to the first officer that he had the aircraft and radios.”
A year later, in 2023, US investigators disclosed that a bird strike was severe enough to penetrate the fuselage and affect the pressurization system.
In August 2019, Ural Airlines Flight 178—Airbus A321—from Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport to Simferopol struck a flock of gulls just after liftoff at very low altitude. While both engines ingested birds and lost significant thrust, the crew performed a successful forced belly landing in a cornfield a few kilometers from the airport. Fortunately, all 233 people on board survived the accident, but the aircraft was written off.
These are some of the more severe cases and represent a fraction of the total number of such incidents happening globally every day.
That said, bird strikes are also fairly common in military aviation, especially with single-engine fighters/trainers operating at low altitudes or near airfields, as EurAsian Times has reported on multiple occasions.
Bird Strikes Also Threaten Fighter Jets
Even though modern fighter jets are well-equipped to defend against modern aerial threats, a non-traditional threat like a bird strike still poses a challenge for aircraft worldwide. Even though Class A incidents–one where the expected damage cost exceeds $2 million–are uncommon, bird strikes have the potential to damage aircraft significantly.
These collisions are often unavoidable due to the aircraft’s speed. Typically, in such incidents, birds can also penetrate the windscreen, potentially injuring the pilot, impairing visibility or control, and increasing the risk of aircraft loss. Large aircraft often experience engine problems or even complete failure following a hit.
When a bird is ingested into an engine, it can severely damage the first compressor rotor. This damage may cause severe vibration and ultimately lead to a significant loss of thrust.
Additionally, bird strikes during takeoff or landing can also damage extended landing gear, potentially disabling the brakes or the nose-gear steering system. Such damage can cause serious directional-control difficulties during the subsequent landing roll.
Fighter jets with their massive high-bypass turbofan engines are designed to ingest birds up to a certain size without flaring, and feature reinforced windshields that can lessen the impact of a bird strike at lower speeds. However, even the most advanced engines have a maximum mass they can consume before catastrophic power loss.
Earlier this month, a bird struck a fighter of the Tatmadaw (Air), the air force of the Myanmar Armed Forces, during a training flight in the Yangon region of the country, causing the aircraft to crash. According to reports, a bird entered the aircraft’s engine, triggering a fire that caused the crash.
The Malaysian F/A-18 Hornet fighter reportedly crashed on the runway of Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Airport in Kuantan during takeoff after its engine burst into flames on the night of August 21, 2025. An investigation into the incident later confirmed the bird strike as the cause of the accident.
A Royal Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft struck a bird over north Wales in January 2025, which caused damage to the aircraft’s front and forced the jet to return to base.
In another incident, the pilot of a US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35B was forced to land after colliding with a bird shortly after takeoff from Kunsan Air Base in South Korea in April 2024.
During low-altitude flight in January 2022, an eagle damaged the left air intake of a South Korean F-35A Lightning II aircraft, causing damage to a hydraulic duct, power or wiring systems, and a bulkhead in the weapons storage. This affected the navigation and landing gear, forcing an emergency belly-landing.
Although the pilot escaped unscathed, extensive damage to the aircraft eventually led to its retirement, as repair costs became unsustainable, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
This is an incomplete list of such incidents, which continue to plague fighter jets worldwide.
While continued investment in predictive modeling, real-time detection systems, habitat modification, and crew training offers the best path to reducing the frequency and severity of these collisions, the fundamental vulnerability of aircraft operating in shared airspace with birds is likely to persist well into the future.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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