Unusual Air Crash Victim

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
Last week in the Chicago area, Aurora to be exact, we had a plane go down in dense fog.

Two south Florida men who family members said were traveling on business were killed in a twin-engine plane crash Saturday night in a far west Chicago suburb.

The pilot, Gary Bradford Jr., 37, of Hollywood, Fla., and his passenger, Drago Strahija, 32, of Lake Worth, Fla., had come from Texas, spent a night in west suburban Aurora and were on their way to Denver, Kane County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said.

Bradford was flying a twin-engine Piper Aerostar 601P when he crashed into a home for unknown reasons shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday in Sugar Grove Township, said Pam Sullivan, senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. Bradford, who was instrument-rated and licensed as a pilot, had taken off about 6:52 p.m., Sullivan said.
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There is no word or public indication on why the plane went down. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...crash-20100124,0,2745589.story?obref=obinsite

Sadly, the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash there was one injury on the ground, a hawk!

You do not normally hear about animals injured on the ground in these crashes. I think if they are hurt or killed it is one of the things that does not get reported on because people feel animals are somewhat lessor beings than people.

But they do get hurt. In this crash rescuers noticed the bird and turned it over to a raptor specialist for care.

Amid the chaos and wreckage of a plane crash scene near Sugar Grove last weekend, police happened to notice a severely burned hawk.

The bird was burned so badly that a wildlife rehabilitation specialist caring for the bird has been unable to make a positive identification of her species.

But the bird — dubbed Phoenix — still may make a complete recovery
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-0128-injured-bird-20100127,0,4594382.story

51890297-27202522.jpg


An interesting story.
 
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smigaldi said:
Sadly, the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash there was one injury on the ground, a hawk!

You do not normally hear about animals injured on the ground in these crashes. I think if they are hurt or killed it is one of the things that does not get reported on because people feel animals are somewhat lessor beings than people.
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I suppose it was the absence of impact injuries to the hawk that indicated it was a victim of the crash and not a cause.
 
smigaldi said:
Last week in the Chicago area, Aurora to be exact, we had a plane go down in dense fog.

There is no word or public indication on why the plane went down. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...crash-20100124,0,2745589.story?obref=obinsite

Sadly, the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash there was one injury on the ground, a hawk!

You do not normally hear about animals injured on the ground in these crashes. I think if they are hurt or killed it is one of the things that does not get reported on because people feel animals are somewhat lessor beings than people.

But they do get hurt. In this crash rescuers noticed the bird and turned it over to a raptor specialist for care.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-0128-injured-bird-20100127,0,4594382.story

51890297-27202522.jpg


An interesting story.
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Looks delicious, and already partly cooked.

Mmmmmmmmm.
 
In the last couple of weeks I've looked out in my backyard and seen a beautiful Hawk land on top of my bird feeder structure. I've seen it twice. They are gorgeous birds. Glad this one survived.
 
EppyGA said:
In the last couple of weeks I've looked out in my backyard and seen a beautiful Hawk land on top of my bird feeder structure. I've seen it twice. They are gorgeous birds. Glad this one survived.
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Raptors are so neat. We have several species in our area and visits to the bird feeder are common. Actually it is a bird food chain feeder, but that is another story. The area around my house is starting to see Bald Eagles coming in from across the boarder up in Wisconsin. Fantastic Birds!!!

I had one bald eagle at my altitude out my window when coming home from 6Y9 last year!! That was very cool!!!
 
smigaldi said:
Raptors are so neat. We have several species in our area and visits to the bird feeder are common. Actually it is a bird food chain feeder, but that is another story. The area around my house is starting to see Bald Eagles coming in from across the boarder up in Wisconsin. Fantastic Birds!!!

I had one bald eagle at my altitude out my window when coming home from 6Y9 last year!! That was very cool!!!
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Very cool indeed. I have two cockatiels and a Senegal parrot in the house so I get to see some birds more closely than others.
 
I really like to watch the hawks and kestrels around here. Just something about them that's regal.

The vet we use for our critters specializes in treating injured birds-of-prey. The hawks, kestrels, and owls that he gets usually end up in a wildlife park because they normally can't be released back into the wild after their injuries. They end up in displays and used for educational visits to schools and other places.
 
smigaldi said:
Raptors are so neat.
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Agree 100%!! we have a bunch of Hawks around here lots of redtail. interestingly the Crows really harass them. I thought smaller birds like crows would be scared of hawks but man the are just relentless.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Can anyone ID this?
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well - the filename says 'peregrine'.

Our backyard neighbors have a large decoy owl on their fence, above their vegetable garden. They think it'll discourage the rabbits. One afternoon I heard a commotion from the back yard and went out back to see what was going on. It was a juvenile red-tail, on the fence next to the owl decoy, and was trying to chase the decoy away. He was hopping up and down, flapping his wings and chattering at it. This went on for a couple minutes before another neighbor's dog wandered over to see what was going on and the hawk flew off.
 
Leslie and I were actually at the Aurora airport earlier that day at a safety seminar on risk management. There was almost no one flying, as the ceilings were reported 200'. I commented to Leslie about a Skyhawk I saw positioned between two hangars with its beacon on. We were guessing they were just doing some maintenance. It was a real downer to hear about the accident the next day.
 
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AdamZ said:
Agree 100%!! we have a bunch of Hawks around here lots of redtail. interestingly the Crows really harass them. I thought smaller birds like crows would be scared of hawks but man the are just relentless.
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I suspect that crows know quite well that no one, and I mean absolutely no one likes to eat crow.
 
smigaldi said:
Raptors are so neat. We have several species in our area and visits to the bird feeder are common. Actually it is a bird food chain feeder, but that is another story. The area around my house is starting to see Bald Eagles coming in from across the boarder up in Wisconsin. Fantastic Birds!!!

I had one bald eagle at my altitude out my window when coming home from 6Y9 last year!! That was very cool!!!
Click to expand...

Now and then I see an eagle fly by our house, at about window level, 100-200 feet off shore. Magnificent birds.
 
Thanks for those videos Oliver! They were really amazing and much more graceful than our aluminum/composite machines.

You guys raise an interesting point about injured animals. Usually the birds are the ones causing the accidents, but this little guy had the tables turned on him.

It's sad that humans have to effect the natural environment so much. This includes the air, though it is to a much smaller extent (at least in my opinion.) I guess it goes with the territory, our own evolutionary path could have very well been much different if these falcons would have been bigger and smarter.
 
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