Could an aeroplane be brought down by a helium filled balloon?

Question

highly random question, just curious really.

Answer 1

perhaps if there were enough of them, like flocks of birds have been known to cause air crashes.

it could if sucked into the engines.

Answer 2

maybe if it blew

Answer 3

wtf?

Answer 4

balloon filled with helium mainly floates so it may be the same for the aircraft. helium won't be able to bring down the aircraft down but could dislocate the aircraft from its actual position or could mainly burst the fuselage into number of pieces there itself in the sky..............

Answer 5

If the balloon was big enough and the plane flew into it then yes,,,

Answer 6

Yes - quite possibly.

Remember anything floating in air can be dangerous if it comes in contact with an aircraft which is flying. This is known as a 'mid air' collision. A helium balloon can be as hazardous an object as any other which can collide with an aircraft in mid air.

Just imagine a helium filled balloon floating in the sky and hitting an aircraft travelling at 300 to 400 kts. Depending on the point at which the balloon is likely to impact, the damage can be anything from minimal to serious.

Answer 7

A single, child's type balloon? Very unlikely. On large aircraft, the effect would be negligible. On a small piston aircraft, about the only way is if it would get sucked into an air intake or the like but even that is extremely unlikely.

A larger weather balloon might have a chance of causing more problems but in most circumstances a ballon would just be pushed out of the way or popped.

Answer 8

Look at the barrage baloons in ww2. They were anchored by steel cables.It didnt do aircraft a lot of good if they flew into those cables.And aircraft were brought down by them.

Answer 9

Like how?  It couldn't hurt the exterior.  A regular balloon wouldn't have enough mass to hurt the engines.

I can't see how it could affect a plane at all.

Plus the Plane would have to be travelling at a very low altitude to hit a balloon.

Answer 10

Depends on the plane and on the balloon. If it's an ultralight airplane and it collides with a 20 foot diameter high-altitude weather balloon, the quite likely the ultralight would come down. But if you just hit a normal party balloon, I doubt anything bigger than a paper airplane would have any trouble.

Answer 11

Yes, it could make an engine to cut out. Depending on size and type of the balloon. If enough Helium is injected in to an engine it will starve the engine of oxygen causing it to flame out. Helium is a noble gas so it will not react to the fuel in the engine, stopping combustion to take place in the engine. The material of the balloon can also can block an engine intake making the engine to stop. (Causing the plane to make an emergency landing.)

Answer 12

A quick search of the NTSB database doesn't show any accidents caused by balloons.  On the other hand, I would think that if one were ingested, say by a single engine jet aircraft, or if one managed to lodge in one of the control surfaces it seems possible that an accident could result.  If an aircraft managed to hit one of the high altitude balloons on its way up, that might have some consequences - the balloons expand to 300 -400 feet at high altitude and so are quite large.  On the other hand, they are large enough to be easily seen plus ATC is aware of the balloons, and they usually are carrying a transponder for ATC tracking.

Answer 13

How large?

Answer 14

are u able to bring ballon filled with air down in water.

helium ballon itself go up in air due to lightness and how will it bring the plane down