This Il-76 took about 30 strikes on takeoff. It's in Brazzaville, Congo last July.

He continued the takeoff and came back a couple of hours later. Tough airplanes!

The old eastern-block aircraft (Ans, Ils, Letts etc) are all tough as hell and tolerate neglect and abuse incredibly well. Unfortunately the eastern-block pilots that fly them are crazy as hell and frequently crash them anyway. Multiple-bird strike on take-off? Fuck it we'll just go on to destination and assume everything is ok.....the South African pilots are no different, and crash with regularity too.

back in the early 1970's (don't remember the year), northwest orient hit 14 ducks on final to missoula one day with a B-727. they were about 30 minutes late for takeoff because they had to wash off the blood and feathers first. it looked gross, at least one of the passengers threw up walking from the plane to the terminal.

A second or two after I took this picture a bird went through the number four engine, made a nice puff of smoke.

In West Africa there are moths as big as birds, often at night you run into them. They leave a splat just like a bird but green instead of red.

Related thread with some good stories:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3443