Altitude record???

[Spitfire]

I have just read that a Boeing 737 had to return to the UK one hour into it`s fight to Faro, after the engines sucked in a swarm of bees.
From my experience of flying, you are at about 32,000 feet long before an hour has passed. The question is - why were the bees up so high?

[DavidBatty]

Planes fly in air corridors, depending on where they are they might have needed to descend to a lower altitude to cross another airway/s.

It is advisable to have oxygen in an unpressurised aircraft above 10,000 feet and the air temperature drops by 2 degress centigrade for every thousand feet you climb,so if the bees were at 32,000 feet and it was a warm 20 degrees on the ground then they would be flying in temperatures of -44 degrees Centigrade.

I think it's safe to assume the plane was flying much lower than 32,000 given the lack of oxygen and minus 44 degrees C conditions at that height.

[Spitfire]

Thanks for that David. A second report I read on the incident stated that `loud bangs` were heard from the engine on take-off. That would suggest a far more credible explanation. I suppose that an immediate landing would have been ruled out because of the full fuel load?

[LDunlop76]

I don't know why, but this statement tickled me:
A British Airline Pilots' Association spokesman said "bee strikes" were a very rare occurrence
It makes it sound like the bees deliberately targetted the plane!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2088524,00.html

[DavidBatty]

Yes Jim, you would have to dump the fuel before attempting to land if there was the possibility of fire.

An impact that disables an engine is certainly a reason to dump fuel.