An air carrier flight struck a large bird just prior to touchdown at lga.

Attributes
ACN	853763
Time
Date	200909
Place
Locale Reference	LGA.Airport
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 97 Flight Crew Total 14000 Flight Crew Type 2891
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal

Narrative:

Just before touchdown at an altitude of approximately 50' AGL on runway 22 in lga a cormorant flew across our path from left to right. By the time I called 'bird' as the non-flying pilot and the copilot responded 'in sight'; impact was unavoidable. We notified tower of the strike and that they should sweep the runway for remains. The bird was found 1000' from the approach end of the runway. After pulling into the gate; ground personnel confirmed our suspicion of the strike on our nose cone. A large dent was contained to just the nose cone and damage to radar antenna. The cause of the problem is the close proximity of lga to water. The approach end of runway 22 is on a pier. Waterfowl in and around the airport are common. The only way to prevent such occurrences from happening is through the use of devices designed to ward off birds.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight struck a large bird just prior to touchdown at LGA.

Narrative: Just before touchdown at an altitude of approximately 50' AGL on runway 22 in LGA a cormorant flew across our path from left to right. By the time I called 'bird' as the non-flying pilot and the copilot responded 'in sight'; impact was unavoidable. We notified tower of the strike and that they should sweep the runway for remains. The bird was found 1000' from the approach end of the runway. After pulling into the gate; ground personnel confirmed our suspicion of the strike on our nose cone. A large dent was contained to just the nose cone and damage to radar antenna. The cause of the problem is the close proximity of LGA to water. The approach end of runway 22 is on a pier. Waterfowl in and around the airport are common. The only way to prevent such occurrences from happening is through the use of devices designed to ward off birds.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.