Birds and jet engines

Livescience.com already has up an extensive story on the matter of what happens when airplane engines suck in birds, as likely happened today with the USAir plane.

Not surprisingly, the experts say it's usually larger birds that are more likely to cause serious damage to the engines. The danger is soon after takeoff, before the plane gets to a higher altitude than the birds hang out. In this case, it sounds likely that both engines were damaged.