Bullet Hole Found in US Airways Jet

[trax1]

Has anybody seen this story, the pilot of a US Airways flight was making his pre-flight inspection Monday when he noticed a bullet hole in the fuselage, and I guess it looks like the bullet strike came from above the plane & not from below, I mean you'd think that it was someone shooting at the plane from the ground but it doesn't look like thats what happen.

My grandparents use to have a house just a few miles from O'hare airport in Chicago and we'd always have jets flying fairly low over the house all the time & I always thought about that, that if someone wanted to they could easily shoot the plane from there backyard.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bullet-hole-found-us-airways-plane/story?id=13247926

[B-17]

just a theory... maybe someone shot a round into the air and it happened to have come down on the airliner>

[Volron]

just a theory... maybe someone shot a round into the air and it happened to have come down on the airliner>

More than likely what happened.  Not too long ago, we had an police officer nearly get hit with a round that fell from the sky.  Came through his roof and right through his laptop, while he was doing a report on it.  He wasn't injured, fortunately.

[Dace]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I would think that a bullet falling at terminal velocity would not have enough energy to go through a roof. If someone could explain how that would be possible, I'm seriously interested to know.

[Jayhawk]

Trajectory.

A bullet doesn't just go up, turn around, and fall.  See picture:

[skorpion]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I would think that a bullet falling at terminal velocity would not have enough energy to go through a roof. If someone could explain how that would be possible, I'm seriously interested to know.

oh its been done before, someone shot a bullet into the air on newyears day in las vegas and 5 miles away a plane was hit with it and it went all the way thru the roof (i dont remember how long ago) so yes, its possible to have it happen but not very likely.

[SmokinLoon]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I would think that a bullet falling at terminal velocity would not have enough energy to go through a roof. If someone could explain how that would be possible, I'm seriously interested to know.

a 150-200gr .30 caliber bullet certainly has enough energy to punch through a typical roof of a house.  A few layers of shingles and a 1/2 to 3/4 in piece of plywood wont stop a bullet that heavy dropped from a few thousand feet high.  A wee bit of tin and/or aluminum is not going to stop much from puncturing it.  

[B-17]

Trajectory.

A bullet doesn't just go up, turn around, and fall.  See picture:

(Image removed from quote.)

agreed, but it wouldnt have been fired at 30 degrees, more like 85-5 degrees, if not straight up, no?

[Buzzard7]

They news did report a shooting range about 7 miles from the airport.

[Jayhawk]

agreed, but it wouldnt have been fired at 30 degrees, more like 85-5 degrees, if not straight up, no?

That was just a random picture I found online, but the same physics applies to it regardless of angle (except for 90 degrees).  Btw, it's been a long time since high school physics, so anyone feel free to correct me.  In theory, a bullet shot strait up would come to a stop, then fall strait back down, but that's just not plausible.  Factors like human error and wind make that perfect shot nearly impossible.  Even at a very steep angle, like 85 degrees, it would still follow that parabolic trajectory.

[Maverick]

There is no real idea about where the plane was when it was hit. It didn't have to happen in mid flight. It could have been hit on the ground, on take off or landing. There is no idea of the trajectory of the slug because of that either. If there were tall buildings near the airport the plane flew from it could been have been lower than the firearm when hit.

This is going to be very tough to pin down so it would be better to wait for the investigation to conclude or run down rather than speculate on it.

[Jayhawk]

I really don't think it matters if we speculate on it, I doubt anyone is looking for answers in our forums.

[Blackwulf]

When I lived in Ft. Wayne many years ago, a gradeschool aged girl was killed on New Year's eve by a bullet fired into the air.  It struck her directly in the top of her head and killed her instantly. It isn't terminal velocity that's the problem, it's general velocity.  Remember that a bullet is leaving the barrel much faster than terminal velocity, and it is going to drop due to gravity long before it loses speed to just terminal. Like Jayhawk said, it's trajectory.  Terminal velocity would only apply in the strict sense if the bullet were dropped from overhead, with an initial starting speed of 0. Ballistics can have some weird  (and non-intuitive) effects.

In fact, the Allies had a terminal velocity (kinetic) ordinance that looked like a miniature bomb about an inch or so long, made from about 1 oz of steel. It was scattered from high altitude aircraft and designed to do damage over a broad area against personnel and soft targets.  It was not fired from a gun, but depended on the speed it picked up from being dropped from a great height.  I don't have any data on how effective they were, but I wouldn't want to be under 'em.  Even a regular bullet, if high enough caliber, can do a lot of damage even at just terminal velocity.

From personal experience, the living history village I volunteered at North of Phoenix (Pioneer Village) was on the other side of a low mountain range from the Ben Avery shooting range.  One day the USMC decided to let rip at the range with a few M2's (.50 caliber for those who don't know) The rounds arced over the mountain after hitting their targets (we assumed, as we figured even jarheads wouldn't be dumb enough to fire M2's into the air near a populated area), and strafed the village.  We had to take shelter, and afterwards, repair a lot of holes in roofs, wagons, and other outdoor displays.  A year later we were still finding spent bullets in the ground when digging for any reason, some as deep as 4 inches of packed dirt.

I can easily believe the bullet came from a gun fired into the air for whatever reason.

[Slash27]

oh its been done before, someone shot a bullet into the air on newyears day in las vegas and 5 miles away a plane was hit with it and it went all the way thru the roof (i dont remember how long ago) so yes, its possible to have it happen but not very likely.

Was Santa Claus shooting at the Tooth fairy?

[Wolfala]

I have a bullet ricochet impact the left wing of my Cirrus 20 back in Jan of 07. Was way out on thewingtip - I marked the area of impact and looked for any delamination. That was 1600 hours ago - spot has not changed.

The toejamty part is, my wife found it while she was degreasing the belly.