Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Boeing 737-924ER, N37420: Incident occurred July 31, 2012 in Denver, Colorado

NTSB Identification: CEN12IA502 
 Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of UNITED AIR LINES INC
Incident occurred Tuesday, July 31, 2012 in Denver, CO
Aircraft: BOEING 737-924ER, registration: N37420
Injuries: 157 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.


On July 31, 2012, about 0909 mountain daylight time, a Boeing 737-924ER, N37420, impacted a large bird while approaching to land at the Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, Colorado. There were no injuries reported. The airplane sustained damage to the radome, pilot side pitot tube, and the vertical stabilizer. The flight crew declared an emergency and continued to DEN making an uneventful landing. The aircraft was registered to Continental Airlines, Inc., and operated by United Airlines as flight 1475 under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a domestic passenger flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), at 0818, and was bound for DEN.

The flight crew reported that during descent for landing, they heard a loud bang from the front of the airplane. According to the flight crew, the pitot static flight instruments in the cockpit were not indicating correctly and they used power settings and aircraft configurations along with air traffic control call outs of their ground speed to continue the flight to DEN.

Examination of the airplane after the incident revealed a large hole in the radome located on the nose of the airplane. Additionally, a portion of the radome had become lodged on the pitot tube located on the left side of the airplane. Additionally, bird remains were found within the left engine, and on the tail of the airplane.


FAA IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: UAL1475        Make/Model: B737      Description: 737
  Date: 07/31/2012     Time: 1457

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: DENVER   State: CO   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 1475 BOEING 737 AIRCRAFT HAD A BIRD STRIKE TO THE 
  WINDSCREEN/NOSE CONE, NO INJURIES, AIRCRAFT LANDED WITHOUT INCIDENT, 
  DENVER, CO 

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    


OTHER DATA
  Activity: Business      Phase: Unknown      Operation: Air Carrier


  FAA FSDO: DENVER, CO  (NM03)                    Entry date: 08/01/2012 











A United Airlines plane collided with a bird on Tuesday as the jet was descending into Denver International Airport.

Pictures from the airport show a large hole in the nose of the Boeing 737. Flight 1475 landed safely around 9:09 a.m., then was escorted to one of the gates on the B concourse at the airport.

There were 151 passengers on board but there were no injuries, said Christen David, a spokeswoman for United Airlines.The plane was flying from Dallas/Ft Worth to Denver.Steve Cowell, an aviation expert and pilot, told 7NEWS that the nose is the best part of plane a bird could hit."It didn't affect the engines. It didn't affect the landing gear from coming down at all," said Cowell. "Passengers probably wouldn't have felt anything, but the pilot certainly would have heard the smack of the bird on the nose."

According to Cowell, the pilots would have had to slightly alter the way they read their instruments. 

 "If (the pilots) were off their autopilot, they might have known to have to pitch the airplane up or down just a little bit differently to what they were used to doing," said Cowell.

He said the bird residue recovered from the aircraft will be sent to Washington to be analyzed by experts from the Smithsonian, who will help identify the bird.

"The Smithsonian Institution has a catalogue DNA database of every bird species in the world and they'll be able to determine what species that bird is based on that DNA analysis," said United States Department of Agriculture wildlife biologist Kendra Cross.

Cross is responsible for trying to keep wildlife away from the DIA. She uses non-lethal methods, such as shooting shell crackers into the air in a five-mile radius around the airport.

"They make just a loud bomb sound, just a burst in the air, and it makes them very uncomfortable to be on the airfield and to be around on this kind of environment," said Cross.

A spokeswoman for DIA said the bird strike happened about 25 miles outside of DIA's property.

"Twenty-five miles is definitely outside of our realm of expertise and I don't think there's a single non-lethal device that we have that will reach up to scare birds that are that high," said Cross.

The National Transportation and Safety Board has been called in to investigate -- as is typical in bird-strike cases.

"If I were to put money on it, I would say it would be a large flocking bird such as a goose or a duck," said Cross. "It could have been more than one bird? We don't know that. We've taken samples off of various parts of the plane that had impact, so we'll be able to determine if it's more than one bird or if it's just one bird."

According to Cross, the pilot reported that the bird strike damaged the airplane's horizontal stabilizer and air speed indicator. The impact did not affect the landing of the plane.


If you or someone you know was on this plane, please give 7NEWS a call at 303-832-0200.

 
This report came after an earlier one filed by DIA, in which airport authorities confirmed the property received a non-specified bomb threat Tuesday morning. The threat is not affecting airport operations, although there has been an increase in police activity.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31320050/detail.html?source=kmgh

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