The Tiger Two suffered an incident while making a pass launching flares

The mid-air collision between a Swiss Tiger II fighter and a flock of birds in Poland

Esp 9·01·2023 · 5:53 0

One of the big problems in aviation, especially at low altitude, is that aircraft are not the only ones that circulate through the air.

The skillful demonstration of a Swiss Air Force Hornet fighter in the Glarus Alps
The spectacular aerial display of two Swiss F/A-18 fighters in the middle of the Alps

Collisions with birds are a common source of accidents among airplanes. To this end, many airports have birds of prey and even drones to scare away the birds, but that does not prevent incidents from continuing to occur, such as the one that occurred last weekend at the Radom air festival, in Poland. Among the participants in this air show, the largest in that country, was one of the most veteran aerobatic patrols in Europe: the Patrouille Suisse of the Swiss Air Force, equipped with six Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighters.

During the show, Tiger Two, the fighter piloted by Commander Claudius Meier "Mac", made a solo pass launching flares in inverted flight, a certainly eye-catching image. When he finished doing that stunt, the pilot encountered a flock of birds in his path . Dafydd Phillips has posted a video of what happened, noting: "Fortunately There was no mechanical damage and the cabin glass was not damaged". I'm afraid the birds got the worst of it... The collision is observed at point 0:08 of the video and appears repeated, enlarged and in slow motion at point 0:29:

The Swiss channel Luhengfoto has published this video of the collision< /strong>, with better image quality. The collision is seen at the 0:06 point of the video:

You can see three screenshots of this latest video here (you can see the enlarged images by clicking on them). Here we see Tiger Two about to collide with the flock of birds:

Next we see the moment of the collision. The pilot has interrupted the launch of flares. We watch as the flock of birds (or what remains of them) disperses.

Finally, Tiger Two makes an evasive maneuver, in case the collision had caused damage to the plane and the pilot had to eject (doing so with the plane in inverted flight would be suicide). Fortunately, the incident did not have serious consequences.

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Main photo: Patrouille Suisse.

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