Whack!

Birds are everywhere this chilly morning. Hundreds of them all flying together about two thousand feet above the wetlands surrounding Sacramento Airport. There's a fine mist hovering just above the field with visibility rapidly changing as the sun slowly ascends into the winter sky. On our arrival, I am flying while the Captain is on bird patrol making sure he spots them and then will call, "Birds" ahead while I split my scan between the gauges and the outside environment. I decide to click off the autopilot a little early so as to gently avoid our winged friends if I see us on a collision course. A few are spotted and thankfully all got out of the way as we touch down on runway 16R at SMF.

Next flight back to Los Angeles and the Captain is in command as we accelerate down runway 16L for our lift off speed of 138 knots. So far no birds. I glance at our airspeed and call "Vee-one, rotate" as the Captain gently pulls back on the stick and sends the Airbus into the air. Just then he mumbles, "Crap" as I see a rather large bird quickly move from left to right in my peripheral vision. At this speed, it is more like a grayish-white blur, but I know it is close enough to have probably sent it whirling out of control to the ground from our wake. I immediately stare at the engine instruments, monitoring the gauges like a hawk to notice any sudden decrease in RPMs from a possible ingestion. Nothing. Everything looks normal. I send my scan back outside the cockpit to resume my portion of bird patrol until we at least past five thousand feet. After that, I can begin to relax.

As we climb to altitude, the Captain and I discuss how that was a close one, but we didn't think we hit it. Upon landing in Los Angeles, we conducted the post flight inspection to ensure we were right, but it looks like we got it. The right leading edge, inboard of the #2 engine took a direct hit, and by the looks of it was a medium-sized bird.

What ensues from this point is a call to maintenance, a logbook write-up, cleanup of the leading edge and inspection of the surface area and all areas aft of the target site. To double check, we move the flaps down to ensure there's no bird parts behind. Besides, we were at flaps 1 at the time, and the remains could have become stuck back there. Kind of gross, but that's what is involved. After inspection, a maintenance sign off in the book and submitting an FAA Wildlife Strike Report, we go on our merry way. No harm done to the plane, by the way. However, it ruined the poor bird's day.