A Flair Airlines pilot suffered minor injuries during a bird strike that occurred shortly after taking off from Toronto Pearson last week. After striking a flock of geese during the climb, the captain’s windscreen panel shattered and fragments of glass entered the cockpit.
Bird strike shatters Flair Airlines windscreen panel, injures captain
More details have emerged about a bird strike accident affecting a Flair Airlines flight last week. On October 24th, Flair Airlines flight F8641 from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG) took off from Toronto’s runway 33L at around 13:45 local time. However, three minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 4,000ft, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 struck a flock of Canadian Geese.
At least one of the birds impacted the captain’s side of the windshield, fully puncturing one of the corners of the windshield panel and causing glass to shatter. According to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), the captain received “minor injuries” due to the glass entering the flight deck.
Photo: nylezuberi | Shutterstock
The flight crew then issued a “PAN PAN” emergency distress call, telling Air Traffic Control (ATC) they had a “busted forward windshield” and were not pressurizing. The aircraft proceeded to land back in Toronto, touching down safely on the airport’s runway 33R less than 30 minutes later. Additionally, with the captain now unable to see properly through the impacted windshield, a request was made to be towed to the gate.
A significant bird strike event
This will definitely go down as one of the rarer and more significant bird strike events in recent memory. The vast majority of bird strikes do not cause any major damage to the aircraft and are usually labeled as ‘incidents’ rather than ‘accidents’ like this one – in fact, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) study on bird strikes occurring between 2008 and 2017 found that only 0.1% were classified as accidents.
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How Common & Dangerous Are Bird Strikes In US Aviation?
A six-fold increase in instances of bird strikes have been reported.
Just last week, a United Airlines Airbus A319 was involved in a bird strike accident when its mid-left leading edge slat suffered a “pretty good dent.” While commercial aircraft are designed to withstand bird impacts, bird strikes are estimated to cost the industry hundreds of millions in damages every year.
Plane grounded in Toronto for a week
The aircraft involved in this incident is a five-year-old 737 MAX 8, registration C-FLKO, delivered to Flair in August 2022 before entering service in January 2023. Data from ch-aviation shows the airframe has accumulated over 6,000 flight hours and 2,700 flight cycles during its time with Flair.
Photo: Peter Bueno | Shutterstock
After spending a week on the ground in Toronto, C-FLKO flew again on November 1st, making a seven-hour flight to aircraft storage facility Pinal Airpark (MZJ). Windshields on the Boeing 737 MAX are designed with three layers – an outer layer, interlayer and inner layer – to maximize durability in the event of incidents like this.