<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1691018, October 2019

A320 first officer reported multiple bird (bat) strikes on final approach that resulted in damage to the aircraft.

Attributes
ACN	1691018
Time
Date	201910
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 104 Flight Crew Total 944 Flight Crew Type 944
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal

Narrative:

On a visual approach to runway 35R into ZZZ at approximately 1;500 feet we flew through a swarm of bats. We could see and hear them striking the plane. After landing we counted approximately 75 to 100 bats contacted the plane. Nose cone; windshields; engines; cowlings; wings and tail. We contacted maintenance and the local station ops and sent a maintenance code. ATC told us the aircraft in front of us on approach reported hitting bats; but didn't mention how many. If we had an idea it would be so many we probably would have chosen a different runway or held until they moved from the area.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 First Officer reported multiple bird (bat) strikes on final approach that resulted in damage to the aircraft.

Narrative: On a visual approach to Runway 35R into ZZZ at approximately 1;500 feet we flew through a swarm of bats. We could see and hear them striking the plane. After landing we counted approximately 75 to 100 bats contacted the plane. Nose cone; windshields; engines; cowlings; wings and tail. We contacted Maintenance and the local station ops and sent a maintenance code. ATC told us the aircraft in front of us on approach reported hitting bats; but didn't mention how many. If we had an idea it would be so many we probably would have chosen a different runway or held until they moved from the area.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.