Duck Strikes Helicopter

Gainesville Florida Pilot manages to land medical helicopter safety after a duck shatters the windshield and hit him in the face
by Associated Press
Published: Sat, March 07, 2009 - 2:48 pm CST Last Updated: Sat, March 07, 2009 - 2:51 pm CST
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Four people were aboard an emergency
medical helicopter when a duck shattered the windshield and landed
in the cockpit.
Pilot Don Irving's eye was injured in the collision, but he
managed to land safely.
Thursday night, the helicopter was returning to Shands Hospital
at the University of Florida carrying an unidentified trauma
patient, a flight nurse and a flight paramedic. The copter was
flying at an altitude of 700 feet and just a few minutes from the
hospital, preparing to land on the rooftop helipad, when the bird
flew into the windshield.
The bird clipped off several switches on the overhead instrument
panel before landing on the foot of one of the medical crew. Irving
remained calm and landed on the hospital's helipad.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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carl
carl Says:
Sun, Mar 08, 2009 at 7:50 am

Glad to hear they landed safely! We seem to be having a lot of bird strikes here lately.Don’t recon that aflac duck is getting them organized do ya ?

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