FBI: Bullet caused hole in US Airways jet

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

Officials say a pilot making a pre-flight inspection of a US Airways plane found a hole in the fuselage and the FBI is investigating.

The FBI recovered a bullet from the rear right fuselage, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. The bullet had not completely punctured the cabin.

A preliminary analysis reveals that the bullet likely traveled about three-quarters of a mile and was losing velocity when it struck the plane in a downward and front-to-back trajectory. This has prompted speculation that the jet may have been hit by a falling stray bullet. There is no evidence the plane was targeted, but that cannot be ruled out, Orr reports.

Nobody was injured on the flight, and the FBI doesn't know when the shooting happened. Agents are now interviewing passengers and are talking to maintenance crews who serviced the plane Sunday.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/29/national/main20048439.shtml?tag=stack

[jpak]

1. Teabaggers

yup

[notadmblnd]

2. delete

[no limit]

3. Probably a stray bullet. No way any one would be able to pull off a shot like that on purpose

[Thor_MN]

7. Nope, no planes have ever been shot from the ground ever...

:eyes:

[no limit]

8. This bullet was coming down. meaning the shot was fired in the air

You would have to be a master mathematician and a hell of a aim to pull that off.

[markpkessinger]

9. It could have been fired upwards and have been on the downward side of its arc n/t

[no limit]

10. Since the bullet was also losing velocity I doubt it

but I guess it's possible.

[Thor_MN]

17. At what point of a bullet's flight is it gaining velocity?

It starts slowing the instant it leaves the firearm.

Actually a bullet past the peak of its flight is gaining some velocity due to acceleration from gravity, but the decrease in velocity due to air resistance is a much bigger factor.

[slackmaster]

19. The terminal velocity of falling bullets was covered thoroughly by Mythbusters in episode 50

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the relative speed of the bullet relative to the airplane was due to the airplane's forward velocity. This was certainly an unusual event.

[Thor_MN]

23. This was not about a bullet fired straight up

A bullet fired straight up, for a instant at the top of its trajectory, loses all velocity and tumbles as it falls back to Earth. I think we can probably rule that out as the hole would have to be either in a leading edge, the top or the bottom of the plane. For most of the relative velocity to be due to the planes forward velocity, the bullet would be have be at the top of it's trajectory in a bullet shot straight up or close to it scenario. For the same reasons, I think that is also unlikely. I don't think a bullet has enough mass to make a hole at only the plane's velocity, a dent maybe...

The bullet in question was almost certainly in ballistic flight, only losing velocity to air drag and gain in altitude.

Since a plane banks and pitches in flight, combined with not knowing when the bullet hit, they really can have little clue to path of the bullet relative to the ground. In other words, the angle that bullet intersected the plane is useless as the angle of the plane in flight bears little relation to the angle of the plane as it sits on the ground. Wild pitch and roll can be ruled out, but otherwise the angle could have varied through the full range that the plane attains during flight.

[slackmaster]

25. Re: "I don't think a bullet has enough mass to make a hole at only the plane's velocity"

You should watch that episode of Mythbusters.

I have a back porch covered by an aluminum awning. Although it's not as tough as aircraft skin, there is a round bullet hole of about .38 caliber (9 mm) in it. The hole is circular in shape, and based on it shape and the surrounding terrain it could only have been produced by a bullet falling straight down or nearly so. A chunk of lead going at automotive speed can penetrate thin sheet metal, and an airplane in flight is going a whole lot faster than that.

I haven't read any more information and it's 3:00 AM here now, but I do suspect that the bullet hit the plan while it was on the ground, the result of an irresponsible act of firing a bullet into the air, or perhaps a bullet fired in a responsible manner that just took a weird hop.

I've seen bullets in some very strange places, including on a high observation deck of a Navy ship.

[Thor_MN]

26. "it could only have been produced by a bullet"

Do you really mean to say that the only thing in the world that can penetrate your awning is a bullet? If so, I say we get some more of it and ship it to Japan to entomb the reactors. Since there shouldn't be any bullets in the reactors, we could rely on your "everything but bullet" proof awning material.

Aluminum awnings could be anywhere from about half to almost the same thickness as aircraft aluminum. But unless you, or someone standing right next to your house fired straight up in the air, (and assuming your hole was indeed caused by a bullet) the bullet was likely in ballistic flight and traveling faster than terminal velocity.

I enjoy idle speculation on the causes of things, but I dislike absolutes, especially ones that have obviously ridculous implications. If you had said that it was likely caused but a bullet, I probably wouldn't be typing right now. I have watched that episode of Mythbusters and recall quite well them sitting under a sheet of polycarbonate waiting for bullets to rain down. While it is possible that the bullet that hit the plane was in a non-ballistic, terminal velocity flight, it is VASTLY more likely that wasn't the case. You may want to rewatch the episode, IIRC Jamie did a section talking about just how special a case it was, firing a bullet straight up and the difference if the bullet was not.

I do like your theory of the plane getting hit while on the ground, but unless the shooter had been within feet of the plane (at an airport, I think?) we are talking ballistic flight and velocities higher, probably much higher, than terminal velocity for a tumbling bullet.

[no limit]

21. The muzzle velocity of an ar-15 for example is 975 m/s

The terminal velocity of a bullet is about 55 m/s if I'm not mistaken.

[Thor_MN]

24. Less than 25% faster than a (serious) major league fastball?

55 m/sec, unless my middle of the night math fails me is 123 miles per hour and change... You must be talking the bullet fired straight up scenario, which almost certainly was not in play.

[Thor_MN]

16. Master mathematician? Shot fired in the air? Most shots fired into the ground don't hit planes.

Or anything, but ground.

If you shoot at a plane sitting on the ground, at the same level as you, guess what vertical direction the bullet is traveling when it hits the plane?

Now raise the plane 10 feet. What direction? 100 feet? 1000 feet? Unless you are underneath the plane, such that the bullet hits the plane before the peak of its trajectory, the bullet will be coming down. And that hole would be in the bottom of the plane. Otherwise, the bullet is moving down when it hits it's target.

No doubt, hitting a plane in flight is tough shot. If it wasn't a stray bullet/accident, no one knows how many planes were shot at and missed, except the shooter.

My main point, however, is that because something is hard to do doesn't mean it is impossible to do.

[CreekDog]

12. Is that suposed to make us feel better?

:wtf:

[no limit]

15. Never said it should. Just thinking aloud.

[slackmaster]

20. I support your natural right to feel any way you choose to about it.

:hi:

[CreekDog]

29. .

[CreekDog]

30. i know, i know, guns had nothing to do with the bullet hole

if there weren't guns the person who did it would've used telepathy to create the bullet shaped hole.

i stand corrected. :eyes:

[slackmaster]

31. That's a very childish response, CreekDog

In reality, if firearms had never been invented there would probably be no airplanes either. Firearms are intricately woven into the history of technology, engineering, politics, and other human affairs for both good and bad.

[Tesha]

4. If only the plane had been armed, it could have fired back! (NT)

[crim son]

5. Stray bullets.

Another great thing about guns.

[jberryhill]

6. They need love too

I read a story just the other day where some kid in the city adopted one.

[onehandle]

11. Was the gun range full? nt

[hollowdweller]

13. Fallout from a party at the Palins

[Arrowhead2k1]

14. Only in America does air traffic have to worry about flying into stray bullets.

GG, NRA.

:rofl:

[slackmaster]

18. Worrying about things is often a matter of choice

I think that choosing to worry about an event so improbably that it's unlikely to have happened more than once in the history of aviation would be quite foolish and self-destructive.

[kirby]

22. Good job pilot...

I appreciate the thorough pre-flight inspection.

[Javaman]

27. If only the airplane was packing heat, this would have never happened.

do I really need to add the sarcasm thingy?

[RedCloud]

28. Bullets don't kill planes, people do!