Story ID: 
Birdstrike Eyed in Citation Crash
By: Jennifer Harrington
Caption: A 1975 Cessna Citation I (N113SH) that crashed March 4 while taking off from Oklahoma City Wiley Post Airport is reported to have encountered a flock of bi
Word Count: 153
A 1975 Cessna Citation I (N113SH) that crashed March 4 while taking off from Oklahoma City Wiley Post Airport is reported to have encountered a flock of birds before the accident. Three passengers and two pilots died when the twinjet crashed four miles from the airport. An NTSB spokesman told AIN that lead investigator Tim LeBaron talked to one witness who saw birds in the area of the accident airplane, but birdstrike or ingestion has not yet been “ruled in or out.” The witness, a retired Air Force crew chief, told investigators that at the time of the crash, “he observed pieces of a bird falling from the sky to the water near his location.” Another witness told local TV station KTWV that the Citation “flew right through a flock of birds” and reported that he heard a bird being sucked through an engine and then saw a dead bird floating in the lake.