I was in an MD80 taking off out of SJC when we hit a flock of birds -also happened to capture it on video.  You could hear the impact with at least two of them on the underside of the fuselage.  Right after that the rest of the flock flashed by the window.  You see all of the birds trying to scatter, that just made the flock a bigger target.  The engines kept going - so we got lucky.

Is there a size below which the bird will be ingested and spit out without damage to the engine?
http://n91cz.com/VideoClips/MD80BirdStrike.MOV    (QuickTime movie)  impact is at 1:02

 

Chris Zavatson   

N91CZ

L360std