There’s nothing in Top Gun to prepare pilots for this: Back on April 11, an F-111 was doing a trial bombing raid exercise at Evan’s Head in northern NSW when a pelican casually crashed into the plane’s nose and was promptly sucked into one of the jet’s engines.
The jet was flying at 900 metres and at more than 550 kph when they collided, and the damage included a hole in one wing. After the collision, the pilots (Maverick and Iceman?) flew the gimped plane for 30 minutes back to the Amberley Air Force base.
Repairs to the plane are expected to cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but should be completed in about a month’s time. The Pelican, who we’ve decided to call Marv, is in a stable condition dead. It was sucked through an F-111’s jet engine, after all.
News.com.au has a gallery of the damage, if you’re into that kind of carnage. Which you are, aren’t you?