Hello everyone,

 I have just uploaded my latest video which features a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER on final approach to London Heathrow Airport (Runway 27L). It also features what genuinely appears to be a bird strike in the aircrafts left engine.

 What do you think?

To me it doesn't look like a birdstrike. The birds would have been shredded to pieces, most probably. They seem to be pretty intact. I think they went over upper surface of the inner wing, and the downward trajectory results from the airflow around the extended flaps

 Would the birds be shredded though? They are small birds and its a big engine. Could they not just pass through? Would they have any effect on the engine itself e.g. smoke, flames, a bang etc?

I have had a number of birdstrikes, including one into an engine. Have a look at the incident in MAN with aThomsonfly  B757 in April 2007, just about the same happened to me. The unfortunate seagull that hit my right engine was shredded thoroughly.

As a rough guess, the fan of the engine on that B777 turns at about 1400rpm (approx. 60% N1) on final approach. That equals 24 revolutions per second. That's 528 fan blades that pass any point in the intake every second. Given a speed of 80m/s, if the bird is bigger than 6in. there is no chance to slip through without being torn to pieces. If it's a small bird you might not even notice, if it's a big one you definitely will.

I do not believe that the birds entered the engine.  I think that they passed down the LH side at about the 4 'o' clock poistion (as you look at the intake), the birds then being caught in the jet efflux and sent rewards.  The angle from the ground probaly made the birds appear closer to the aircraft than they actually were.