Henry Spencer wrote:


Unfortunately, birdstrikes -- by serious birds, like Canada geese -- are
not unknown even at jetliner cruising altitudes.



I've seen what a Canada goose can do hitting a aircraft at 200 mph; it
went through the copilot's windshield, and ended up back by the tailcone.
You hit one at 600 mph, it's going to be major-league bad.
On a lark (bad pun) I looked up what the bird altitude record was. A
Ruppell's Griffin (a type of African vulture) was struck by an aircraft
at 37,000 feet.

Pat