The Nation - News from March 10, 1988

The first B-1B bomber to be strengthened against damage by birds was cleared for flight training, allowing the Air Force to fly a low-altitude training mission with the plane for the first time in more than five months. Lt. Col. Fred Harrop, a spokesman for the Strategic Air Command, said a B-1B based at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas had flown low-level bombing runs on a practice range after Rockwell International Corp. completed a series of modifications to reduce vulnerability to bird strikes. The modifications were ordered for all of the Air Force’s B-1Bs after one of the bombers crashed last Sept. 28 in Colorado during a low-level training flight, killing three of the six crewmen aboard. An Air Force inquiry determined the plane went down after slamming into a large pelican, whose543321956wing and severed key hydraulic systems.