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Why did USAirways 1549 lose power just minutes after takeoff en route to Charlotte NC? All three newscasts concurred that the likely culprit was a flock of geese getting sucked into both of its jet engines. "The vast majority of collisions with birds occur at low altitude, during landing or takeoff," Armen Keteyian told us on CBS. "Jet engines are particularly vulnerable during takeoff when they are turning at very high speed." Each year, damage to jets caused by bird strikes, as they are called, costs $600m, ABC's Lisa Stark reported, and the resulting crashes have killed more than 200 people over the last two decades. NBC's Tom Costello showed us videotape of Pratt & Whitney tests of bird strike damage. He did the conscientious thing and told us that the engines that failed were made his own bosses. General Electric, which owns NBC News, is partner in the joint venture that powers Airbus. Yet Costello called geese not GE the "prime suspect" for the crash.
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