The video in this post features a Patrouille Suisse F-5 Tiger suffering a bird strike with a flock of birds crossing its path
Filmed by our friend Dafydd Phillips during Radom Air Show, the video in this post features an F-5 Tiger II belonging to the Patrouille Suisse, the Swiss Air Force aerobatic display team, suffering a bird strike with a flock of birds crossing its path.
Phillips explains;
‘A phone camera moment at Air show Radom 2023 captured a bird strike. As the Patrouille Suisse F-5 Tiger 2 turned off his flares after a single ship pass a flock of birds can been seen crossing its path. Luckily no mechanical damage was done and the canopy and cockpit were undamaged. I’ve repeated the clip in slow motion and cropped in.’
As already reported, bird strikes by aircraft are not uncommon. According to the US government program Department of Defense Partners in Flight (DoD PIF), every year, about 3,000 wildlife-strike incidents are reported for military aircraft and another 2,300-plus for civil craft.
Various prevention programs, including the Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard program, have been put into place in an effort to reduce these bird-strike incidents.
“Habitat modifications and scaring birds away from the runways is an integral part of the answer, but understanding the behavior and movements of birds in relation to the airfield environment and military training routes by pilots and aircrews is also a critical factor in reducing bird strikes,” the DoD PIF says.
Photo by Dafydd Phillips