The NBA’s Oklahoma Thunder took a lot of shots in their game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the night of Friday, Oct. 27.
When the team disembarked their Delta Airlines Boeing 757 shortly at Chicago’s Midway Airport after 1:00 a.m. Central Time, they found the nose cone of the plane they were riding was completely caved in.
Several players posted pictures of the damaged plane on Twitter.
Okalahoma’s star small forward Carmelo Anthony captioned his picture of the dented plane, “What could we have possibly hit in the SKY at this time of night? Everyone is safe, though.”
Delta’s Corporate Communications officer explained what probably happened:
“Delta flight 8935, operating from Minneapolis to Chicago-Midway as a charter flight for the Oklahoma City Thunder, likely encountered a bird while on descent into Chicago.
“The aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, landed safely without incident; customers have since deplaned and maintenance is evaluating. Safety is Delta’s top priority.”
It is unlikely the bird fared well.
As it turns out, collisions with birds are not extraordinary. In fact, they happen often enough that airplane designers make the nosecones of their jets out of a malleable composite to help absorb the shocks of avian impact.
In response, Dr. Ali Genc, Turkish Airlines senior vice president of media relations, explained that the nose cone “of a plane is being constructed by soft materials (composite) to minimalize the impact of such hits. Therefore, such standard/normal deformation occurs as a natural result of such incidents.”
Basically, Boeing knows its planes are going to bash into birds, so the planes have bird-bumpers.
Of course, bird/jet encounters don’t always work out well for the plane.
That collision sucked enough geese into the engines to force the plane to crash land in the Hudson River—which resulted in a dramatic rescue and stardom for the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger.
The incident was immortalized in the Hollywood movie “Sully: Miracle on the Hudson,” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as Sullenberger.
So, all in all, that avian aviation disaster worked out well, too.