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Dangerous helicopter bird strikes on the rise: FAA
January 6, 2016 By The Associated Press
The crew of a Dallas police helicopter was searching for a capsized boat last March, when there was a loud explosion and wind rushed through a huge hole in the windshield.
The pilot, Sgt. Todd Limerick, put a hand over one eye, his face covered in blood and Plexiglass shards. He kept his other hand on the controls until the co-pilot, Cpl. Laurent Lespagnol, took over and landed the aircraft.
“My first thought was that we had been shot. My second was the engine blew up,” Lespagnol said in an interview. It wasn’t until they had landed that they found the cause wedged between the cockpit seats — a 3-pound American coot, a duck-like bird. | READ MORE
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