What did this Chinese Boeing 757 hit at 26000ft?

Rhys Essien

:eek: Unlikely any type of birdstrike.

Thoughts.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339139/Was-bird-A-Plane-Or-UFO--Chinese-passenger-jet-hits-mysterious-object-26-000ft-lands-severely-dented-nose-cone.html

A320

The Daily Mail,dear god look at the other snippets they insert about UFO's.

''Struggled to perform'' thats a new one on me

pclancy

Yeah how would a dent in the nose cone make a 757 (which are way overpowered as it is) "struggle to perform" that's totally ridiculous.

"However, he questioned whether the 'secretive' Chinese would reveal the cause"

Oh FFS!

"Last week, it emerged that three passenger jet pilots saw UFOs above Britain's Scientology headquarters on their approach to Gatwick Airport"

Bahahaha it just gets worse and worse.

The Mail never cease to impress me with their aviation journalism.

A320

ha i have to pick you up on something,you referred to Daily Mail & Journalism in one sentence!!!

BeardySi

You know things are getting bad when the mail quotes the sun....

monkeysnapper

So far you all seem very negative towards this story . Can I ask do any of you believe there is life on other planets and were being visited.
I believe myself but if these UFO are highly more intelligent than ourselves I'd like to think they could easly dodge a 757 , after all how come after all this time and all these 1000s of supposed sightings more airliners haven't already had bumps!!

I don't believe this story but believe there is life out there outside our planet .

Rhys Essien

Daily Mail and UFO's aside,what would ye think caused it?
Did anyone hear of similar incidents in the past?.Cant say I have myself.Will be interesting what the Chinese have to say.Very big lantern:D

shedweller

If a drone hit the nose of the plane it would have done a lot more than a dent! Even if a large bird hit it it would have broken. I'd say it was a smallish bird or the nose simply collapsed.

kona

Very odd for a composite (gfrp?)to deform like that.
I'd have thought it would crack. Probably some bogey spurious part they used,

PapaSierra

I'm pretty sure that the close examination of the damaged cone will reveal traces of a gelly, green stuff that glows in the dark. It's pity that those Chinese men in black will keep the secret for themselves.

Now seriously, does anyone have any ideas? Any 'meteo devices' / balloons? For me it looks like a collision with something light and soft like a small bird mentioned above but a small bird at 26000ft? What kind of bird flies at that altitude?

seven_eleven

There's many more credible sources out there on this story btw. Why post the daily mail? Nobody is going to take it seriously.

shedweller

PapaSierra wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that the close examination of the damaged cone will reveal traces of a gelly, green stuff that glows in the dark. It's pity that those Chinese men in black will keep the secret for themselves.

Now seriously, does anyone have any ideas? Any 'meteo devices' / balloons? For me it looks like a collision with something light and soft like a small bird mentioned above but a small bird at 26000ft? What kind of bird flies at that altitude?

Thats a good point on the small birds max altitude. Not very likely then. Any bird would surely leave a splatter?
Edit:
I had another look and those black marks look like the impact point and the air pressure forced the rest of the nose in. Weather balloons need clearance etc. to fly don't they? The instrument package being encased in styrofoam could do that as long as it was a small package. I've seen videos of lads launching small rc planes from high altitude balloons also.
We may never know really!!

brandon_flowers

Being slightly more qualified that a Daily Mail journo and without reading any other links I would guess a strike at a lower altitude causing minor cracks and weakening the composite and then the indentation at higher altitude which would have caused the bang.

murphym7

monkeysnapper wrote: »

So far you all seem very negative towards this story . Can I ask do any of you believe there is life on other planets and were being visited.
I believe myself but if these UFO are highly more intelligent than ourselves I'd like to think they could easly dodge a 757 , after all how come after all this time and all these 1000s of supposed sightings more airliners haven't already had bumps!!

I don't believe this story but believe there is life out there outside our planet .

I have a bag of magic beans you may be interested in, PM me with your credit card details and I will ship them on the next shuttle from Zoltar.:D

urajoke

Most likely it was a birdstrike. It is actually well known that aircraft hit birds at night during the migration season. Canadian geese migrate at high levels well above 30,000ft. This is a bird strike nothing more nothing less.

One of the highest altitude bird strikes on record involved a Boeing 747 that struck a large bird flying over the West African coast at 37,000 ft above sea level (ASL), but highaltitude bird activity generally occurs only during migration. At that time, birds attain greater heights either to take advantage of winds aloft or to pass over obstacles such as mountain ranges. Migrating Bar-headed Geese have been reported above the summit of Mount Everest, and typically cross the Himalayas at altitudes up to 30,000 ft ASL. A flock of swans migrating from Iceland to Western Europe was reported by a pilot at just over 27,000 ft ASL. Mallards have been reported at 21,000 ft, and Snow Geese have been reported at 20,000 ft. While the altitudes of most migrating birds tend to be much lower, documented average migration altitudes are impressive. Radar observations during peak migration movements in Europe have shown that the majority of migrants flew between 5,000 and 7,000 ft AGL, with a lower limit of 1,600 ft and an upper limit of 11,500 ft.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/publications/tp13549-chapter3-5354.htm

pclancy

Yeah I would imagine anyone that can find us in the first place and then fly millions of light years across space to our little blue planet could avoid a lumbering airplane.

Totally agree there must be life outside the planet, but I don't think they would bother with ramming a Chinese 757.

Pilots obviously would see more UFOs then any other group of professional people so I would not be surprised if one day they are the first to report a real sighting.

monkeysnapper wrote: »

So far you all seem very negative towards this story . Can I ask do any of you believe there is life on other planets and were being visited.
I believe myself but if these UFO are highly more intelligent than ourselves I'd like to think they could easly dodge a 757 , after all how come after all this time and all these 1000s of supposed sightings more airliners haven't already had bumps!!

I don't believe this story but believe there is life out there outside our planet .

asdfg!

Come on, it's obvious. It's China right? China? There's a clue there? Chinese lantern anyone?

But seriously whatever it hit, if it hit anything at all, it was a glancing blow. To me it looks like the dome collapsed more than anything. Perhaps there was minor damage from something, a bird?, early on in the flight. Which weakened the dome until it finally failed? Pure speculation of course.

Peregrine

Guys guys!

It was obviously Xenu visiting the lads in the Scientology building for a cuppa

Tabnabs

North Korean "satellite" test launch?

knucklehead6

http://airnation.net/2012/05/14/bird-strike-us-airways-orlando/

doesn't state the altitude, but the damage looks remarkably similar.

kub

knucklehead6 wrote: »

http://airnation.net/2012/05/14/bird-strike-us-airways-orlando/

doesn't state the altitude, but the damage looks remarkably similar.

Thats interesting another nose cone on another 757.

knucklehead6

kub wrote: »

Thats interesting another nose cone on another 757.

it was a bird strike. No blood or feathers evident though, but they stated it was a bird strike. The damage is similar the the Chinese aircraft, so it would point the finger of blame at a bird strike there too. Not a UFO. Not a weather balloon. Not a drone. Not a particularly dense cloud. A Birdstrike