Latest news with #SanJavier
Times
22-07-2025
- General
- Times
Captured: moment seagull hits 600mph Typhoon at air show
A photographer has captured the moment a seagull collided with a Spanish fighter jet, shattering its canopy as it was performing aerobatic manoeuvres at an air show. A lesser black-backed gull flew into the path of the Eurofighter Typhoon as the plane was flying at about 600mph at the Aire 25 air show in San Javier in Murcia in June. Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero, an aviation photographer, captured the incident in a four-shot sequence before and after the moment the bird hit the right side of the windscreen. The final shot shows the shattered perspex and the pilot, who ended the flight and returned to land. The bird just before the strike and, below, the moment of impact JAVIER ALONSO DE MEDINA SALGUERO/SWNS JAVIER ALONSO DE MEDINA SALGUERO/SWNS Tens of thousands of birds hit aircraft in flight every year, almost always at low height near airports. The majority cause little damage. Most cases that make the news involve jets that suffer engine failure after their turbines ingest birds. A bird strike began the sequence that brought down a Jeju Air Boeing 737 in Muan, South Korea, in December, killing 179 people. Windshield strikes, which account for almost half of bird collisions with helicopters and about 20 per cent with fixed-wing planes, can be dangerous. Pilots have been killed and badly injured when larger birds have smashed through the windscreen, hitting them in the head and chest at speeds of more than 100mph. The impact energy of a seagull with a jet fighter near the speed of sound is huge, potentially destabilising it in low-altitude manoeuvres. The cost of replacing the canopy can run well into six figures. • Planes are striking more birds, but Detective Dove is on the case The photographer said he was using a Nikon D7500 with a 200-500mm lens when he saw the Eurofighter pull out of the display. 'They reported over the radio that it had hit a seagull and broken the cockpit. Just then, I looked at the photos I had and saw the whole sequence,' he said. 'I was amazed to see the front of the cockpit broken.' The pilot was able to land safely despite the shattered windscreen JAVIER ALONSO DE MEDINA SALGUERO/SWNS King Felipe was attending the show, in which there were displays by Spain's Eagle Patrol, the RAF's Red Arrows and Italy's Frecce Tricolori teams. The jet that hit the bird was from the Spanish air force's 11th wing, based in Moron.
The Sun
22-07-2025
- General
- The Sun
Incredible pictures show moment seagull SHATTERS cockpit of £73MILLION warplane
A WARPLANE strikes a seagull at an airshow display — shattering the cockpit canopy. Incredibly the pilot was unharmed and able to land the £73million Eurofighter safely. 4 A photographer captured the split-second strike over the San Javier Air Base in Murcia, Spain, on June 15. But snapper Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero said he realised what had happened only after checking his photos. They show the gull swooping into the path of the jet, before the bird is hit and smashes a giant hole in the canopy. A huge cloud of debris can then be seen exploding out from the pilot's cockpit area Javier added: "I was at the base in the San Javier area, at the site where they took us photographers. 'We were watching the Eurofighter display when we saw it leave without finishing. "They reported over the radio it hit a seagull. "I had the whole sequence.' 4
Telegraph
22-07-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Seagull smashes cockpit of £73m Spanish fighter jet
The moment a seagull collided with a Spanish fighter jet and smashed through the cockpit was captured in an extraordinary photograph. The £73m warplane was performing in the Eurofighter display at San Javier Air Base on June 15 when it had a stroke of bad luck. The pilot landed and was unharmed. Aviation photographer Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero unwittingly captured the spectacle, only realising when he checked his camera later on. 'They reported over the radio that it had hit a seagull and broken the cockpit. Just then, I looked at the photos I had and saw the whole sequence,' he said. 'When I looked at the photos, I was amazed to see the front of the cockpit broken.' Bird collisions with aircraft are a regular occurrence, with 13,000 reported annually in the US alone. But for a bird to shatter a pilot's glass window, and for a photographer to capture the scene, is exceedingly rare.
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Terrifying moment seagull strikes £73million Eurofighter shattering its cockpit during airshow
Explosive pictures show the moment a bird shattered the cockpit of a £73million warplane. Aviation photographer Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero captured the scene as a seagull hit a Eurofighter at a Spanish display in June. The images showed the bird soaring just in front of the display plane. A second photo showed a mist of red chunks and feathers sliding off the Eurofighter. Amazingly, Javier didn't notice what he had captured until checking out his pictures later. He explains: 'This happened at San Javier Air Base, on the beach of Santiago de la Ribera, Murcia on June 15. 'I was at the base in the San Javier area, at the site where they took us photographers. We were watching the Eurofighter display when we saw it leave without finishing the display. 'They reported over the radio that it had hit a seagull and broken the cockpit. Just then, I looked at the photos I had and saw the whole sequence. 'When I looked at the photos, I was amazed to see the front of the cockpit broken. 'Luckily, the pilot landed and was unharmed.' Javier used a Nikon D7500 with a Nikon 200-500mm telephoto lens. The incident happened at the Aire25 international air festival held at San Javier Air Base. Last year, a fighter plane was seen on tape apparently close to losing control and flying straight towards a crowd at a Turkish airshow. The aircraft can be seen rocking in the air before the pilot suddenly pulls the nose up just before it reaches the spectators. The terrifying incident happened at the TEKNOFEST airshow in Adana, southern Turkey on October 3 last year, local media has reported. It is understood the near-miss occurred at the end of a demonstration flight by the SoloTurk, Turkey's aircraft acrobatics team and involved a F-16 fighter jet. According to reports, an investigation was launched into the incident with experts examining the aircraft's video recordings and other flight information.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
‘Global red alert': forest loss hits record high – and Latin America is the heart of the inferno
Wildfires engulfed vast swathes of South America last year, devastating ecosystems, closing schools and grounding flights. With its worst fire season on record, Bolivia was especially hard hit. 'We felt powerless and angry to be unable to protect what is ours,' says Isabel Surubí Pesoa. Surubí Pesoa was forced to migrate to the nearest town after the spring that fed her village in Bolivia's eastern lowlands dried up after the fires and the drought that preceded it. 'It's very painful,' she says. Large ranches and farms often use fire to clear land for crops or to graze cattle. Chronic drought, fuelled by the climate crisis and El Niño weather patterns, combined with weak environmental governance, made it easy for these fires to spread out of control, destroying forests and grasslands. Industrial-scale land clearances without fire is also a major cause of deforestation, undermining the resilience of communities and ecosystems alike. With insufficient local and national government support, many people are left to battle fires with little more than shovels and small water bottles. 'As elected officials, we feel impotent,' says Verónica Surubí Pesoa, a city councillor in San Javier and Isabel's sister. Forest loss in Bolivia and across Latin America is part of a broader worldwide trend. New data released earlier this week by World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch found that global forest loss reached record highs in 2024, with almost twice as much tropical primary forest lost in 2024 as in the year before. That is equal to an area larger than Ireland. Deforestation in the Amazon means warmer temperatures and decreased rainfall, with consequences for farmers and food production. When fire is involved – as it increasingly is – communities report issues from water pollution and smoke, which might increase lung cancer and susceptibility to infections, to disruption to education when schools are forced to close. 'When people live in the middle of thousands of burnt hectares, of course, it's not going to be a healthy environment,' says Iván Arnold, director of the Bolivian environmental organisation Fundación Nativa. Historically heavy rainfall followed Bolivia's drought and fires in 2024, flooding towns and destroying crops. In the Surubí community, in the country's tropical dry forest region, they disrupted growing seasons and damaged roads and bridges, further complicating recovery efforts. Fire – which is not a natural part of tropical ecosystems, as it is in much of Australia, for example – was the leading cause of the loss of tropical primary forest for the first time recorded. Forest loss in tropical regions is especially grave as these ecosystems are some of the world's most biodiverse and serve as key carbon sinks. The greenhouse gas emissions from tropical primary forests lost in 2024 alone exceeded the annual carbon emissions of India. Major fires swept Canada and Russia's boreal forests as well, and overall tree cover loss reached all-time highs across the globe. Peter Potapov, co-director of the University of Maryland's GLAD Lab, which collected the data, says: 'If this trend continues, it could permanently transform critical natural areas and unleash large amounts of carbon – intensifying climate change and fuelling even more extreme fires.' Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, which has analysed the report, says the data is a 'global red alert' to the international community. 'It's a global red alert,' she says. Although the loss of vegetation occurs across the world, Latin America has witnessed much of this catastrophe with Brazil losing the most tropical primary forest of any country. The Amazon biome saw its worst decline since 2016, with primary forest loss more than doubling, driven by fires and agricultural expansion. After a dip in 2023, Colombia's primary forest loss rose by 50% in 2024, though fires were not the main driver. Joaquin Carrizosa, an adviser for World Resources Institute Colombia, says: 'Most of the deforestation dynamics are associated with larger macro-criminal networks interconnected through the basin and … with other countries. This is not just a Colombian problem.' Loss of primary forest surged elsewhere across Latin America. Fires were the biggest cause in Belize, Guyana, Guatemala and Mexico. Nicaragua lost nearly 5% of its primary forest in 2024 – the highest proportion of any country. Bolivia's primary forest loss increased by 200%, reaching 15,000 sq km (6,000 sq miles) in 2024. For the first time, it ranked second to Brazil in tropical primary forest loss and surpassed the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has more than twice its forest area. This 'signals that Bolivia has become a major driver of the global climate and ecological crisis,' says Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, a Bolivian environmental economist. Czaplicki Cabezas says the expansion of industrial-scale farming and cattle ranching, weak enforcement and oversight of environmental regulations, and a legal and political framework that values land conversion over protecting forests drove the increase in Bolivia. 'What makes 2024 particularly severe is the convergence of these structural drivers with a deepening ecological and economic crisis,' he says. Isabel Surubí Pesoa says of the latest data: 'We're the guardians of our territory, but this is out of our hands.' Yet, the data showed some successes. In Bolivia's southern Chaco region, Indigenous communities, public institutions, civil society organisations and volunteer firefighters banded together to protect the tract of land that spans national parks and Indigenous territories. After a devastating 2019 fire season, they invested in early warning systems and enforced land-use policy better. It helped them successfully fight back the wall of flame that had enveloped nearby areas in 2024 and 2023. Collaboration across sectors was fundamental, says Arnold, whose Fundación Nativa supported the effort. Just as crucial were the local monitors – mostly Indigenous Guaraní park rangers – who know the area and track conditions all year to enable a fast response. 'What's important is not just acting when there's a fire,' he says, 'but preparing in the off-season.' In San Javier, Isabel and Verónica Surubí Pesoa are looking towards the next fire season. The organisation of Indigenous women Isabel leads is holding workshops to train women in fire prevention and management, and a municipal strategy is being drawn up. They are also seeking support from conservation organisations to equip a local fire brigade, as the group has no boots, helmets or fire-resistant clothing. 'Last year, we often went to fight the fires in shoes or sandals, and the fire burned them quickly,' she says. 'We're fighting so we don't have to suffer the fires again.'
