See those black bits scattered around this Boeing? It's just part of a massive flock of starlings hitting its fuselage and engine as it was taking off at 200mph. About two hundred birds were sucked into the turbine.


According to the photographer, Juergen Kienast, the sound of the engine as it sucked the birds was defeaning:

The pitch of the engine said it all. It was like sticking a bit of metal pipe into a blender.


Unlike the Hudson River Airbus, however, the crew and passengers got lucky: They didn't have to do any crash landing. The birds weren't that lucky, however, some splattering against the fuselage, others getting blended into a starling purée. Sad, but better them than the 80 people on board. [Daily Mail]

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