B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150; Flight Crew Total 22500; Flight Crew Type 6900
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Declared Emergency
Environment - Non Weather Related
Scheduled flight time was over 12 hours and the fuel load was 229;000 LBS. Start up; taxi and takeoff was normal. The takeoff required the use of flaps 15 due the gross weight which was 611;000 LBS. ATC directed a heading of 320 and a climb to 3;000 FT after takeoff. I called for heading select after gear retraction and began a turn at 400 FT AGL. As soon as the turn was initiated I saw a flock of 6-10 birds immediately in front of the aircraft. One bird hit the center of the forward windscreen and I heard two thumps in very rapid succession. We were at approximately 180-190 KTS at impact. Although my windscreen was covered with bird tissue; the windscreen was not damaged and visibility was not impaired. I looked at the engine panel to access any engine damage and observed a red over temp box around the right EGT. There were no other indications of engine damage or stress. We operated the engine normally for the remainder of the flight. I called for flaps 5 to begin the flap retraction process. Realizing that the bird encounter would necessitate a return; I instructed First Officer to get us a level off at 3;000 FT MSL versus the new cleared altitude which was 10;000 FT. At the same time we saw that an area of weather within 10 miles on our nose would require immediate attention. There were other aircraft making radio calls on the frequency and we were unable at first to make it known to ATC that we had taken several birds strikes with potential engine damage; needed to remain at a lower altitude than our last clearance and needed to make an immediate right turn to avoid severe weather. We elected to declare an emergency at that point. After that; our handling and communications became much smoother. I instructed the Relief First Officer to contact Dispatch and Maintenance Control. I instructed the second Relief First Officer to inform the Lead Flight Attendant of our status and our intention to return. After that he was to make appropriate announcements to the passengers. We obtained clearance to 7;000 FT for fuel jettisoning. Rather than holding ATC put us on a series of vectors in the area. First Officer began fuel jettison in accordance with the Emergency Checklist. At first our intention was to dump to maximum landing weight; 460;000 LBS which would take about 27 minutes. We had about 225;000 LBS at the beginning of jettison. We discussed our options for landing. We were concerned that the same area of weather the necessitated our immediate deviation on initial climb could possibly delay or even prevent our return. Maintenance Control gave us the okay to land overweight and Dispatch sent us the appropriate landing data. First Officer coordinated an immediate return and reviewed the Overweight Landing Checklist. We stopped jettison at 5;000 FT in the descent with about 148;000 LBS remaining. A 30 flap landing with autobrakes 3 was planned. First Relief First Officer reviewed the Diversion checklist on her company issued iPad. The landing [and] rollout were normal. We exited the runway; stopped the aircraft and shut down the right engine for inspection by the emergency crew. Rather than restart the engine for taxi or taxi overweight on one engine; we elected to have the aircraft towed to the gate. Weight at touchdown was 533;000 LBS with 147;000 LBS of fuel on board.
Captain continued flying; First Officer handled radio communications; the other Relief First Officer talked to the flight attendants and passengers; and I talked to Dispatch and Maintenance Control. They were on the line within 1 minute. We discussed our issue and decided our plan of action was to return to inspect the damage. Dispatch then patched in Maintenance Control to discuss the engine damage aspect and the possibility of an overweight landing. They agreed with our continuing to use the engine while monitoring it for future issues and gave us the OK for an overweight landing if needed. They also entered the problem into ACARS at my request; so we could offload some of the work of the non-flying pilot. Dispatch then changed our destination and sent us our landing weight limits.
B777 flight crew describes the crew actions after several bird strikes at 500 FT AGL on departure. An EGT over temperature is noted initially and the crew elects to return to the departure airport. Fuel is dumped but approaching weather leads the crew to terminate that process and land overweight.