Mystery Over Dent In Airliner Nose Cone Continues

A Northwest Airlines Boeing 757 that suffered extensive damage to its nosecone during a flight from Detroit to Tampa is continuing to cause confusion.

The airline are continuing to examine the damage to attempt to establish what caused the damage that resembles a ping-pong ball that has been pushed hard with a finger in one side. Initial suspicios for the damage were centred around a bird strike, however this is becoming more unlikely due to the pilots reporting hearing a bang at 18,000 feet which is too high for most birds to be flying which the Federal Aviation Administration appear to concur with.

The aircraft does not appear to have been in danger as a result of the damage, however the radar apparently failed leading the pilots to suspect a problem with the aircrafts nosecone. The pilots slowed the aircraft as a precaution as they flew into Tampa but did not declare an emergency.

The aircraft has gone back into service today after its nosecone was replaced with the damaged parts being sent to Northwest’s offices in Minneapolis for them to establish what caused the dent on the flight.

Published by: Jon Vickery