Bullet Strike Did Not Cause Citation Hydraulic Leak

[gunfyter]

Bullet Strike Did Not Cause Citation Hydraulic Leak


Bullet Strike Did Not Cause Citation Hydraulic Leak
A hydraulic leak that, along with inclement weather, forced a NetJets
Citation to divert to Minneapolis last night on a ferry flight from
Appleton, Wis., to Rochester, Minn., was caused by a break in a hydraulic
line, not from a bullet strike. According to FAA and TSA investigators,
during the post-flight inspection in Minneapolis to determine the cause of
the hydraulic problem, a broken hydraulic line was found inside the left
engine compartment, as well as a bullet hole on top of the right wing with
the bullet still imbedded. The .308-inch-diameter bullet did not cause any
mechanical problems or damage to any systems, but at press time authorities
had not yet determined how long it had been in the aircraft. The pilots
reportedly "found no issues" with the aircraft during a pre-flight
inspection in Appleton. Authorities have determined that the bullet entered
the wing at a 90-degree angle to the surface of the wing. There are no known
land elevations near the approach routes to Rochester or Minneapolis that
would "provide the opportunity for someone to fire a weapon down towards an
approaching aircraft, investigators said." This has led to speculation that
the airplane was possibly hit by a descending bullet that had been fired
into the air. The FBI has taken possession of the bullet and is
investigating the incident

 

[ProFracPilot]

Not unheard of

Many years ago, I found a hole in the top of the fuselage (pressure vessel) of Lear I was maintaining. When we opened up the interior to do the repair, we found a slug in the insulation. It was obvious that the strike occurred from a random shot, during the descent part of the trajectory. There was no real energy left when it hit.

 

[gunfyter]

I once found a hole punched by a 23 MM round in the tail boom of the AH-1 close to the Tail-rotor driveshaft... did not find the round though.

 

[88_MALIBU]

That is crazy..

 

[OrphicSeth]

Before my Dad shipped out to the South Pacific during WWII he ran fabric targets up and down masts for gunnery practice. He never forgot the noise a bullet makes when it penetrates fabric.

Just after the War, back from the S. Pacific, he's a CFI in Alabama. One afternoon he's cruising around in his J-3 when suddenly he hears the *POP* of a bullet punching through fabric. He just rolled the airplane over, dove for the trees and made tracks back to his field. He got out, and sure enough, a bullet had passed six inches behind his spine up from the botton through the top of the airplane.

Can you imagine spending two years getting shot at in the Pacific only to get shot at by some farmer in Alabama when you get back home? D amn...