Originally Posted by
sailingfun
They hit a large flock of seagulls. One engine quit and the other engine was destroyed and would not have made it around the pattern. The nose wheel was off the ground when tha abort was initiated.
Yep. I happened to see this very event happen right in front of my eyes while I was a flight instructor at SNA airport. I was at the base of the old tower right alongside 19R (now 20R) and heard the BOOM and looked up just as the nose was coming back down to the ground. I thought there was NO WAY he was going to stop, but stop he did. I've never seen an airplane decelerate and come to a complete stop so quickly. It was unbelievable. He did stop slightly past the threshold, though - maybe 100-200 feet into the overrun.
They didn't move the airplane for a while, so we (the instructors and other employees of the FBO I worked for) decided to check it out up close. Dead seagulls were stuck in the nosegear and main gear, and one engine had little molten balls of metal in the tailpipe.
I will never forget that episode. The quick reaction by the captain to abort PAST Vr saved the day in this instance.