Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200
Workload; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor; Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; Flight Crew Rejected Takeoff; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Environment - Non Weather Related
On takeoff roll at about the time I (PM) would call 80 knots; I noticed a large bird sitting on the runway. The bird appeared to be a very large hawk. The bird instead of flying away from us turned and flew right into the number two engine. There was a loud pop and the aircraft simultaneously veered slightly to the right. I glanced at the airspeed indicator and initiated a reject. We came to a very quick stop as the anti-skid cycled the brakes. The FO now PM; instructed the crew and passengers to remain seated as I informed the Tower of our situation. We taxied clear at the next intersection; which had to be Foxtrot as it put us on Yankee right in front of the high number gates. I shut number two down on Yankee as the odor in the cabin quickly became evident.We discussed our situation again and agreed to check the [performance computer] for brake temperature restrictions. We became distracted by Ground Control communications and company radio as we were instructed to return to the gate. We didn't look at the [performance computer] until we were at the gate. I remembered seeing the airspeed indicator passing through 100 knots as I pulled the thrust levers back so I had him check 120; 110; and 100 knots in the [performance computer]. 120 would have had us not return to the gate; 110 knots indicated 60 minutes at the gate; and 100 knots indicated no restriction. I am not sure why we missed checking the [performance computer] earlier as it was one of the first things that I thought of as we came to a stop.
After aligning the aircraft for takeoff; the Captain passed the controls to me and I continued the takeoff roll. As we were accelerating; we both noticed a large (hawk-sized) bird perched on the runway slightly right of centerline. The Captain and I exchanged a few words about the presence of the bird as the bird took flight and passed down our right side. We then felt an abrupt momentary yaw to the right. Later; the Captain and a ramp worker reported hearing a loud compressor stall type noise. I do not remember a noise which may be due to my noise cancelling headset. I was about to recommend rejecting the takeoff when the Caption initiated the RTO.The aircraft decelerated using the automatic RTO system. The deceleration was much more benign than I expected. I notified the Tower that we had rejected the takeoff. The Captain asked me to tell the passengers to remain seated. We taxied clear of the runway. We noticed a strong smell of burned bird in the cockpit. We performed a quick scan of the engine instruments noting no abnormalities. We then shut down the Number 2 engine and taxied to the gate. At the gate; we realized we did not check the brake cooling in the [performance computer]. We estimated the rejection speed to be 100 KIAS. Fortunately; no brake cooling was required. Visual inspection of the Number 2 engine revealed several damaged fan blades and feathers.
A B737 flight crew reported a bird strike during the takeoff roll; damaging one of the engines. The takeoff was safely aborted and the aircraft returned to the gate for maintenance action.