DEN08FA072 · Bombardier, Inc. CL-600-2B16
The Boeing Company Executive Flight Operations Bombardier, Inc. CL-600-2B16 · Accident: birdstrike during initial climb
From City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS) to IAD · Washington, DC
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN08FA072
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bombardier, Inc. CL-600-2B16
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CL-600
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N483BA
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS), Colorado Springs, COTo IAD · Washington, DC
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Birdstrike
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to departure, the crew had not received any advisories regarding bird activity in the area, and the weather was sky clear with light winds. On takeoff, the crew was given a clearance to a 150-degree heading and a climb to 10,000 feet mean sea level (msl). The takeoff was normal and in accordance with company procedures. Approximately 2 minutes after takeoff and passing through 8,000 feet msl and 230 knots, the crew noticed "large white birds." Immediately thereafter, the airplane impacted the birds. "At first there was a loud bang, followed by a moderately loud wind noise." The crew realized at least one bird had penetrated into the cockpit; they declared an emergency and requested to return to the airport. After verifying aircraft control, the crew maneuvered back to the airport. The airplane landed uneventfully and taxied to a ramp. Examination of the airframe revealed a hole in the aircraft's forward fuselage below the cockpit windows. The fuselage skin and forward pressure bulkhead were penetrated and contained bird matter. Bird matter was noted on the cockpit windows, fuselage, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and in the left engine. The left engine fan blades were damaged and the spinner was buckled and collapsed. The bird remains were identified as American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), and the average mass for the bird is approximately 7,000 grams (15.4 pounds). At the time of the accident, the United States Air Force Bird Avoidance Model risk class was moderate for the local area.
Probable cause
the impact with a bird during initial takeoff climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN08FA072
- Event ID
- 20080414X00465
- Case number
- DEN08FA072
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 025192b052eec4d74dcbdc09aae0b3ede5913bbca99f89f96a00b3aa2d06234b; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:31:38.267Z.