[Oden]

Hello Sue,

Qantas hit by bird strike - Yahoo!7

A Qantas Boeing 747 had to turn back to Johannesburg after one of its engines suffered a bird strike, the airline said Wednesday, the latest in a string of incidents to beset the Australian carrier.

- ...one of its engines suffered a bird strike...
- ...one of its engines had a bird strike...
- ...one of its engines took a bird strike...
- ...one of its engines experienced a bird strike...
Are these all fine?

By the way, Sue, could you set eslHQ's clock to the correct time? I'm afraid the clock is about three minutes fast.

[susan53]

Hi Oden,

a. "had" didn't sound right at all to me at first, but it is used :
On 1 September 1998, a Boeing 767 had a bird strike with a large flock of geese ...
Then someone came on the PA and said we'd had a bird strike ..
I was having a really good run and then I had a bird strike ...

b. "took" also sounded a bit unusual in this context. It collocates OK with "blow" and "hit"...
Ward took a blow to the head Sunday from New England's James Sanders that resulted in what the Steelers are calling a neck injury.
Prospects for U.S. economic growth took a hit this week...
but I wasn't sure about " bird strike". But when I Googled it ...
Early indications are that US Airways Flight 1549 took a bird strike in each engine
I took a bird strike on takeoff from Shobdon.
...could it be possible that the engine took a bird strike?

c. "experienced" - I liked this one intuitively and I found several examples on Google
If a flight has experienced a bird strike,...
Shortly after take off from Amsterdam Schipol, the crew of the KLM aircraft experienced a bird strike.
The plane bound for Phoenix experienced a bird strike during take-off and was forced to return to the airport.
... plus others. It came up as often in fact as "suffered a bird strike". Here are some more examples of that :
An American Airlines MD-83 flight from Saint Louis, Missouri enroute to Los Angeles, California suffered a bird strike to it's right engine ...
...a Thomsonfly Boeing 757 from Manchester Airport, UK to Lanzarote Airport, Spain suffered a bird strike when at least one bird, ...
The Heli Inter Guayana helicopter was flying low over the jungle when it suffered a bird strike

So they're all possible. But if you look at the examples (and check the sources on Google) you'll find that have/take are used mainly informally - to report what people actually said, or on forums etc. When the words are used in more neutral or formal contexts (official reports on bird strikes, newspaper articles etc) then experience/suffer are chosen. So they're not all equivalent.

Puts you right off flying...

I'm afraid I have no control over the clock. In fact, I hadn't even realised there was one. I'm just one of several people who moderate the forums. Send Eric a message on the "Site Suggestions and Feedback" Forum and he may be able to sort it out. Odd though - on my computer it's showing 17 minutes slow...

[Oden]

Thank you for the good examples that you've provided, Sue.