Originally Posted by
TripleQ
I was on AC503 yesterday which murdered a couple of birds. We in the middle of our ascent when there was a pretty strong burning smell in the cabin. Sometimes you get an oil/fuel smell but this was much, much stronger. People were reaching for the fan controls. After a bit the captain comes on and says we've hit 2 birds. One on the windshield and one into the engine. Everything "looks normal" but we're going back to YYZ as a precaution. Turned around and landed with the fire trucks and everything to check us out (for flaming bits?) before they allowed the plane to go back to the gates. When deplaning you could see a lovely red smear covering 1/4 of the windshield.
To AC's credit, they were very organized and swapped the next flight from a E190 to an A321 and accommodated everyone.
Having fire and emergency crew standing-by afyer a bird strike is normal procedure - especially when a bird has been ingested into the motor.
There are many systems that can be affected, hydraulics is one of the primary concerns. It's possible that a hydraulic system could be damaged to the point where the nose wheel steering system is rendered unusable - as well as other critical systems powered by the hydraulics.
There is also the concern that the engine compressors could be damaged to the point where the use of engine fire bottle does not extinguish the combustor which requires the use of foam to arrest the combustion process in the combustor.
It sounds like the bird strike on the aircraft wasn't all that serious, but when it comes to bird strikes, no chances are taken.
Sounds like you had a good but rare experience! ^