A300
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Maintenance Action
Environment - Non Weather Related
Captain was pilot flying and First Officer (FO) Pilot Monitoring (PM). We were cleared to takeoff with an initial heading of 270 and a climb to 5;000 feet. Due to gusty winds and convective activity in the area; a Takeoff Go Around (TOGA) thrust takeoff was performed. As the aircraft approached V1 I saw a large bird moving right to left just under the nose. I announced bird. Then we heard an impact noise and bang; which was felt on the floor and rudder pedals. At the time of impact the aircraft had passed V1 so I continued the takeoff. At this time I believed the bird had struck the nose gear and exited down the left side and possibly into the left engine. I paused for a second about retracting the landing gear due to possible damage to the nose gear; but felt the possible engine damage was the biggest threat at the time and called for gear up and remained on runway heading. Engine parameters in the initial climb seemed normal. FO asked if I wanted 270 HDG. Since all engines seemed to be normal I requested heading select to continue the departure. FO informed the Tower of the bird strike and indicated that we needed no assistance at this time and switched to departure frequency. We cleaned the aircraft up on schedule and performed an after takeoff checklist. Departure control issued a climb to 10;000 feet. Due to fact this was such a large bird and large impact; I felt we needed more time to evaluate damage before continuing. So; I asked my FO to request a present position hold just west of the airfield. We entered the hold and leveled at 10;000 feet. I requested my FO to initiate a call to Dispatch. He was unable to connect after two attempts; so I requested ATC to call the company and have them SELCAL us and sent a message on ACARS. I transferred controls to the FO and began talking to Dispatch and maintenance about the bird strike and formulating a plan. I indicated to flight control I felt the impact was significant enough to warrant a precautionary return to inspect for damage before continuing. Dispatcher agreed and was in the middle of issuing a release for the return when my FO informed me that ATC had advised him that a company aircraft had reported a fire from the tailpipe of the left engine on takeoff. At this time I realized that the loud band that was felt in the rudder pedals was probably a compressor stall of the left engine due to bird ingestion. I briefly discussed our situation with my FO an agreed we should declare an emergency and have the emergency equipment standing by on our return in the event we needed their assistance. I chose not to shut down the left engine at this time due to no fire indication or abnormal engine indication. I informed Dispatch I was declaring an emergency and returning due to the reported left engine fire on takeoff and possible nose gear damage. The FO transferred controls back to me; Capt. Pilot flying and FO pilot monitoring. I [notified the situation to] ATC and requested an ILS. ATC gave us vectoring and descent for the return. During the approach briefing the FO suggested a flaps 20 landing due to possibility of left engine failure. I agreed that was a good idea and the FO checked minimum landing field length tables for flaps 20 landing. FO reminded me to select GPWS to 15/20 flaps; 'Good Catch'. We performed an approach checklist.  Due to the 10;000 Ft. hold close to the airfield; I called for the gear down early. We intercepted the LOC and glideslope (G/S). Despite my efforts to slow and descend; we were not fully configured and still fast on the approach just outside the FAF. I elected to discontinue the approach at the initial approach altitude of 2500 feet. I announced discontinued approach and selected ALT hold. We requested and received a 360 an intercepted the ILS a second time fully configured and on speed before the FAF. The remainder of the approach was uneventfully. On touchdown I lowered the nose gear gently to the runway. During rollout steering andcontrol seemed normal. We taxied back to the ramp followed by emergency vehicles. A logbook entry was made in reference to the bird strike.
Just after V1 we hit a hawk. We thought initially that we had hit it with the nose wheel. On climb out the Captain elected to set up a hold to ensure that everything was working properly. While in the hold another aircraft; through Departure reported that they saw fire come out of the left engine when we took off. At that point we elected to return [to departure airport]. Even though we had no abnormal indications on any of the engine instruments; we looked up the 20 flap landing data and prepared for a 20 flap approach just in case any problems developed on that engine. The runway was dry and we had plenty of runway so this posed no problem. The captain made an uneventful landing and taxied the aircraft to parking. They recovered the bird parts from the runway and informed us is was a Red Tailed Hawk. The left engine cowl had a dent on the inboard side and the mechanic said 3 of the fan blades were bent.
A300 flight crew experiences a bird strike on takeoff that seems to be in the nose gear area. Holding is initiated to contact Maintenance and ATC informs that another crew saw fire from the left engine at rotation. The crew elects to return to the departure airport where three bent fan blades are discovered by Maintenance.