Boeing 737 makes duck soup with ducks and lands safely

by Jamie Rhein on

Not all planes that hit flocks of birds end up making crash landings. When a Boeing 737 flew through a flock of ducks near Fairbanks, Alaska on Thursday, it did make an emergency landing to make sure that there wasn’t any major damage to the aircraft other than the crack in the outer windshield. The only other damage was a dent in the engine cowling.

The description of the ducks bouncing off the jet reminded me a bit of the pheasants (and the black bird , and the chipmunk AND raccoon) that bounced off our car last summer when we drove along the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota on our Great American Road trip. Quite alarming and unusual. We’ve been on this road before with never a problem.

It’s not that unusual for planes to hit birds in Alaska. According to the article in the Anchorage Daily News most of the time, the birds just bounce off the airplane and nothing happens. In our case, one of the pheasants was stuck in the grill of our car, something my husband discovered when we stopped to get gas.

In the case of a plane going through flocks of ducks, I wonder if anyone on board has ever yelled, “Duck!”

*Thanks to Gadling reader, Matt for the heads up on this story.

Russian Kid Survives Ride on the Wing of a Boeing 737?

by Justin Glow on

Several news agencies are reporting on the story of a 15-year-old Russian boy who climbed onto the wing of a Boeing 737 and hung on for two hours as the plane flew 800 miles to Moscow.

Is it even physically possible to hold onto something when traveling at over 500 miles per hour especially when the temperature routinely drops down to -58 Fahrenheit at cruising altitude? “His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes,” according to the Russian News and Information Agency.

I have a hard time believing it, and so does the Moscow Times. Its report reads a bit differently:

“A 15-year-old boy is recovering with severe frostbite after hiding in the wheel well of a plane flying from Perm to Moscow, Tvoi Den reported Monday.”

That sounds a little more likely. Even so, the wheel well can be a very dangerous place to hide, and many people have been found dead while attempting to stow away. He’s a lucky kid.