Bug Strike
Flying insect strikes, like bird strikes, have been encountered by pilots since aircraft were invented. Future United States Air Force general Henry H. Arnold nearly lost control of his Wright Model B in 1911 after a bug flew into his eye while he was not wearing goggles, distracting him.
In 1986 a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress on a low-level training mission entered a swarm of locusts. The insects' impacts on the aircraft's windscreens rendered the crew unable to see, forcing them to abort the mission and fly using the aircraft's instruments alone. The aircraft eventually landed safely. In 2010 the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) issued a warning to pilots about the potential dangers of flying through a locust swarm. CASA warned that the insects could cause loss of engine power and loss of visibility; and blocking of an aircraft's pitot tubes, causing inaccurate airspeed readings.
Read more about this topic: Bird Strike
Famous quotes containing the word strike:
“Too long we prayed
God in the thunder,
wonderful though he be
and our father;
too long, too long in the rain,
cowering lest he strike again.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)