Owl Just Wanna Fly a Fighter Jet

By Alex in Animals & Pets on Apr 13, 2008 at 4:17 pm

When sailors Jeremy Smith and Tony McJonston aboard the USS Harry S. Truman were collecting Foreign Object Debris (FOD) in the cockpit of a fighter jet, they found something quite unexpected: a cute little screech owl!

Gorman and the flight deck Medical team nursed the owl, or “FOD” as Flight Deck Control liked to call him, back to health. One of Smith’s main jobs is to collect FOD from inside the cockpit of the airplanes,
which is why the bird was caught instead of scared away.

“The main reason I grabbed it instead of shooing it away was that I was afraid it would fly into the cockpit of another jet,” said Smith.

If the bird had stayed hidden in the cockpit, then panicked during take off, it may have caused a serious problem for the pilot. “If this owl was hiding in a cockpit while a jet was on the catapult. It could possibly bring a jet down if the pilot freaks out because an owl is flying around in his cockpit,” said Smith.

Link – via Inhabitat


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  1. Thespian24601
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    I wonder if he was a secret agent, sent there to take down the plane. Or perhaps it was just comfy.

  2. bean
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    That’s actually pretty cool. So it stowed away the last time they were in port?

  3. Lea
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    What an adorable and calm little owl! I want one.

    *does not condone wild animals as pets. Just wants.

  4. CheeseDuck
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Secret Owl Man!

  5. DrJones
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    Spies these days have amazing disguises!

  6. The Slapster
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    Better send it to Guantanamo, and hold it for a few years to be sure it’s no insurgent.

  7. just a guy
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    The owl is cute, but it isn’t the only cute thing in that picture! :)

  8. Nire
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    anyone see the twin peaks connection?

  9. Alannah
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

    That’s it. I have to get a jet engine. I want a baby owl.

  10. Tempscire
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    Aw, isn’t it cute. Baby screech owls just made my list of Wild Animals That Ought to Be Domesticated.

  11. Manticore
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    lucky thing they had a falconer on board. lol! so cute!

  12. jessleigh
    Apr 13th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    The link mentioned that the guy worked in wildlife rehab. It seems he would have realized that so much human contact was dangerous to the young owl, and it should not have been released in such a manner.

  13. henrah
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am

    That’s curious — John Hodgman’s “The Areas of My Expertise” clearly indicates the screech owl as a traditional pet of submariners, not air crew.

  14. Sise
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 4:00 am

    AwWwww that littol owl is teh cute!
    <3

  15. ted
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 5:02 am

    Wow, his hand is like twice as big as his head.

  16. empty-minded
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 8:32 am

    For some reason I cannot see a fighter pilot “freaking out” because a bird was inside the cock pit. Would the owl have caused chaos on the flight? Maybe. Would the chaos be because the pilot lost control while screaming like a little girl? I just can’t go there.

  17. Alannah
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 9:40 am

    “empty-minded”

    If *I* were flying a billion dollars of jet and found that an owl was flying around me and crapping in my hair, I would, in fact, scream like a little girl. I can totally see that freaking someone out.

  18. NORAN
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    i just want to know how it got there in the first place.
    second the cockpit is a very, very confined space. some starts to fly in this, where nothing is never suppose to–that is not a scenerio they teach you to deal with. a certain portion of pilots will fail to handle the issue. top gun marine pilots -would no even flinch an eyelid!
    no i have no tom cruise crush, my cousin lived the movie, and ended up teaching.

  19. windowshoppist
    Apr 14th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    Cute owl, cute boy holding owl. Good choice, Neatorama!

  20. Brammimonde
    Apr 15th, 2008 at 2:09 am

    FOD or Furby?

    It seriously looks like a furby. :/


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