A friend of mine sent these to me, unfortunately there was no info that accompanied it.  A quick search came up with nothing but I thought this was interesting, I’ve never seen such damage on a small aircraft.

The Emu better keep his eyes peeled











TX-Chukar
White 8

....DAMN!!!...and I see no "brown in-flight emergency" indicators on either seat. With damage like is shown in the above photos I would have to give a big TX-Squadron hats off to the piot of the aircraft!TX-CudaMinister of Information

Actually, this was a midair between the pictured Beech Barron and a Cessna 180. The damage seen was caused by the gear leg and wheel of the C-180. Sadly the damage to the 180 was significant enough to render the aircraft no longer flyable and the pilot perished. This was over or near Tehachapi CA where the Barron managed to land if memory serves.A search on the NTSB.gov site adds the details. . . These are the prelim reports from the NTSB:For the Barronhttp://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20040124X00105&key=2the nearly identical report for the 180 is here:http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20040124X00105&key=1And you can bet that I do keep my eyes peeled. S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

....since there was a loss of life and the plane was a total loss please accept my apologies(sp) if I was sounded like some smart mouth.....TX-CudaMinister of Information

Well, one thing is for sure Cuda, you are right that the pilot who brought that Beech back had one heck of a time doing it. Luckly there were no passengers on the right side of the aircraft. The birdstrike description of this incident must be spreading around though, as a google search of the Registration of this aircraft produces a few such descriptions.http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/birdshot.aspThis damage is more extensive than you would see from a birdstrike, though.Birdstrikes can be pretty severe when the aircraft meets them at higher speeds, but not THAT severe. This is why we have a speed limit of 250 KIAS when below 10,000 ft. unless authorized otherwise. Strikes to the glass by large birds, and when the plane is at higher speeds may impact the pilot with either glass or the bird, and this one of the primary concerns from birdstrikes, and this is a reason why many aviators wear impact resistant glasses. Strikes to wing/empennage leading edges don't usually result in loss of controllability, but can be fairly extensive under the right circumstances. Strikes, or more correctly ingestion into turbine engines is also a significant worry as it may lead to failure of the engine.http://lib.colostate.edu/research/agnic/images/photos/aviation/pintail%20strike.jpghttp://lib.colostate.edu/research/agnic/images/photos/aviation/BASH.GIFS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Thanks for the update Eco.  My friend gets a lot of this stuff sent to him that he forwards to me like a big chain letter.  I am surprised at how much of the stuff gets by everyone, either bad info or doctored photos.   Usually I can get the real story with a quick search and send him back the info but in this case I didn’t find anything.  The damage looked extraordinarily high for a bird strike but my search came up short, at the NTSB site, I searched for bird strike – doh , I am not that good at aircraft identification.  Anyway it’s getting to the point were at least half of the emails I get that are sent to me to be informative are crap.   Again, good work there Eco.  The Emu proves once again that he is all Knowing! S!TX-Chukar

Well, I wouldn't say that Chukar about most things the Emu simply burries it's head in the sand. . . but some things are in a pilot's best interest to know about. A Subscription to AvWeb is an easy way to stay on top of most things related to aviation. It is not limited to pilots. If interested you can sign up for the weekly newsletter AvFlash, the site also features many great articles and info.Sign up here: http://www.avweb.com/profile/If I didn't know about when, where, and what type of aircraft, a search on the NTSB can be tough to find what your looking for. I knew this was recent, the aircraft types involved, the location of the event, and the nature of the event. I first heard about this, and saw the pics on AvFlash.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO