Why does a flying aircraft catches the fire when it touches a bird?

Question

Why does a flying aircraft catches the fire when it touches a bird?

Answer 1

An engine fire caused by a bird strike would be a very, very rare occurrence, though it has happened a few times.  Just "touching" a bird (colliding with a bird in flight) does no damage to the airplane.

There have been a few freaky incidents with birds over the 100 year history of aviation, but these events are so rare they are of interest only as curiosities.  But in ordinary day-to-day operations, bird strikes are not even something to worry about.

Answer 2

I've hit many birds including a vulture and I have never caught on fire. But potentially things could go bad.

I hit the Vulture in Afghanistan and it took out a good part of my leading edge (C-130). This was back in 1987. Behind the leading edge was a heat duct that came off the engine. Had we not shut down the engine we may have had a fire. The heat duct was spraying hot air and did melt a few items. it was also close to fuel lines. As a precautuon we feathered the engine which shuts down all those systems. That probably saved our lives.

What a joke answer by the guy at the bottom, stating a good FE would figure which shut-off valves to close. Obviously this person doesn't know much about aviation and is just a wannabe, we have four engines on a Hercules, the safest thing was to shut down the one where the damage was. We had fluctuating engine instruments from that engine and had no idea what had occurred. We could not see the damage. A Hercules can fly on three engines no problem at all.

As for my other birdstrikes they just bounced off the fuselage, one hit a window and the window had to be replaced. Some are hard to spot as all that is a slight smear.

The jet that crashed in Alaska that another person mentioned was an AWAC, I had a friend on-board.

Answer 3

Because most birds are highly flammable.

Answer 4

Which "the fire" are you referring to?

Answer 5

For a fire to start, the turbine would have to shell out, causing damage to fuel or hydraulic lines, causing a fire.

Fuel would be shut off after the fire warning lights come on, and then HALON would be used to attempt an extinguish.

Avio, I've seen quite a few leading edge and radome damages in my career, so yes, there can be other damage if the bird doesn't hit just the engine.

As far as the C130 leading edge, a good FE would think one or more of the shutoff or isolation valves could have been closed to leave the engine running.

Answer 6

The only time there would be a risk of fire is if it was injested in the engine, and even then a fire would be rare.  Birds can cause damgage to the airframe if they are large enough.  I used to work in a parts/maintenance facilaty and I saw a Pilatus PC-12 that had a bird strike at the wing root that was bad enough that they had to make an emergency landing and then was not allowd to be ferryed by the FAA becasue the damage was so bad.  I saw the pictures and it looked like they had hit a deer (if deer could fly).  There have been a couple of cases of bird injestions that have caused a crash also.  There was a military jet (B-707, I can remember the military donation at the moment) a number of years ago that hit a flock of gease and took a few into the engines and cause a crash that killed all on board.  So while it may not always cause a fire, bird strikes can cause airframe damage, but it is one of the more rare aircraft emergencys.

Answer 7

It doesn't.

Answer 8

It normally doesn't.  On rare occasions, a bird that is sucked into the jet engine (which is full of burning jet fuel) could cause an engine fire.