Earlier this month, one of the Navy’s “doomsday” planes suffered millions of dollars worth of damages due to a bird strike that occurred while trying to land.
The E-6B Mercury, a plane meant to play a vital role during a nuclear war, was performing a maneuver that would include a brief touch down before taking off again at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station when a bird hit one of the plane’s four engines on Oct. 2. There were people aboard the flight when it happened, but there were no injuries and the incident remains under investigation.
Tim Boulay, the communications director for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, said that the plane had to be grounded temporarily and that the incident caused at least $2 million in damage, according to the Washington Post.
The accident was given a “class A” mishap classification by the Naval Safety Center. Cases the result in aircraft destruction, death, or permanent disability also fall into that category.
Earlier this year, another E-B6 Mercury was damaged at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma after the plane’s vertical stabilizer struck the hangar.
