Bird Strike Brought Down US Fighter Jet During November Training - Report

Military aircraft hitting birds is not an uncommon occurrence, but they usually do not result in the loss of an aircraft or human fatalities. According to the Air Force Safety Center, 11 aircraft were destroyed by collisions with birds from 2000 to 2020, resulting in four deaths.

The T-38 Talon fighter jet that crashed in Mississippi last November was caused after the plane collided with a bird, shattering its canopy and causing debris to be sucked into the plane’s engines, which failed soon after.

The pilot, an instructor on a training flight, was forced to eject and landed in a forest where he sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The crash was detailed in an incident report released by the US Air Force earlier this month. The plane was completely destroyed and cost an estimated $8.5 million, the report noted.

“The bird hit the cockpit canopy, shattering it upon impact," the report reads. "Pieces of the shattered canopy were ingested into both engines. The left engine immediately failed, and shortly after stopped spinning or working altogether.”

The pilot was previously described by the Air Force Base Vice Wing Commander as “highly experienced and capable.” The report added that avoiding the bird would have been impossible for the pilot. It further notes that “the greatest risk for the training identified was a possible bird strike.”

The Air Force has been working to replace the aging T-38 which entered use in the 1960s and is still used for training by the service, as well as the Navy and NASA. In 2018, the Air Force awarded a $9.2 billion contract to Boeing Co. to develop a successor that was eventually named the T-7A Red Hawk.

The first T-7As were scheduled to be delivered this year but issues with its development have since delayed the first shipments until 2025, with a full fleet expected to be completed sometime in 2027.