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I seldom comment on such things on the list as it falls into the realm of speculation about what might have been, but (you knew that was coming) I have to respectfully disagree with Matt Reeves in some respects.
In many instances, by the time a pilot becomes aware of a flock of birds - even as large as geese - the mass of an airplane as large as an airliner precludes the sudden evasive action required to miss them even if you know which way to jink - you just can't escape physics. Couple that with the facts that the first few minutes immediately following takeoff is a high work-load flight regime, birds are difficult to see against a city background and unlikely to maintain a constant course once they get near an airplane in their vicinity, making awareness and avoidance even more problematic.
The old saw that birds will generally dive or climb to avoid an airplane on a collision course is in most cases merely wishful thinking. Flying for many years in the LA basin (with way too many seagulls near the airports) I've had them fold up their wings and drop right toward me when I was sure I had them cleared or just scatter - great if you're an adrenalin junkie but lousy for a pilot. Ask the crew of one of our B-1's that scooped up a flock of migrating geese back in the 60's - they were at a relatively high cruise altitude and the geese took the bomber down. The B-1 is agile enough to do consecutive aileron rolls but sudden flight-path changes, severe inough to miss a bunch of geese, ain't gonna happen due to it's mass. Same thing for a loaded Airbus 320.
I doubt if the flight crew on the USAir Airbus had much of a chance of missing them. More a case of extremely bad timing, in my view. A few minutes earlier or later and the birds would have likely not been in thier way.
Regards,
Dan Schaefer
LNC2 N235SP
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