"the investigator said several dead geese were found near the crash site in an open pasture in rural western Oklahoma. The carcass of another goose was found embedded in a mechanism that controls the movement of flight control surfaces."

That's pretty defining right there.  

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/193686/pdf

So much for the arm chair investigators here that said main rotor blade loss. 

"The carcasses of several geese were located in the debris field as well as one embedded in a
flight control servo"

How does a carcas become "embedded" in the actual servo. Thats nuts.

40 years of flying and I sure as hell miss my double pane heating glass S-76 windshield.

The saddest part of all is most of the transfers today are bs patients not in need of rapid transport. Critical care maybe, however put em in a bus.

Special Ops war hero.....taken out by an effing bird.

It was PHI, bird came threw glass and caused overhead throttles to retard to engine idle.

It was in January of 2009.  PHI, in their quest to decrease the empty weight of their S-76's and increase their useful load, took out the heavy glass windscreens and replaced them with an acrylic substitute.  Cruising along at 700' agl and 135 knots, a crew ran into a flock of birds.  The windscreen was compromised and at least one bird came into the cockpit and knocked *both* of the fire handles back, which brought the ECL levers back and out of "Fly."  We, who were not there, can only imagine the noise, chaos and confustion that overwhelmed the unfortunate crew who had just six seconds to trouble-shoot and react.  That S-76 did not have a "Low Rotor" horn.  Apparently, the crew did not get the pitch down in time, lost rotor rpm and crashed into the marsh.  Everyone perished.  Very sad accident.

Phi wasn't the only operator that was using plastic windshields for the reasons listed above. Crews expressed their concerns about it but they turned a deaf ear. It's terrible that a tragedy like this forced them to put he glass windows back in but had it not happen the operators would have never gone back to glass. 

Read the NTSB full report.  A single bird, not a flock. And there was no evidence that the bird penetrated the windscreen.  Other factors associated with the throttle design contributed.

A very tragic accident for those on board and their families.

If the windscreen was glass it would have provided enough structual integrity to deflect the bird. The plastic folded up and allowed the centerpost to collapse. 

Plastic windshields were installed at customer's request.

I was there.

Person: "The sky is blue."

Helicopter pilot: "NO IT ISN'T!  It's actually cyan. Or sometimes bluish purple. I was my unit's Meteorological Officer for six months in the military, and I studied..."  

God, I hate helicopter pilots. Always, always contrary. Always. It must be in their DNA - this neurotic obsession to always be right and let everyone know it.

Okay, NTSB report on PHI's S-76:

1)  About 7 minutes after departure, the cockpit voice recorder recorded a loud bang, followed by sounds consistent with rushing wind and a power reduction on both engines and a decay of main rotor revolutions per minute.

2)  Examination of the wreckage revealed that both the left and right sections of the cast acrylic windshield were shattered. Feathers and other bird remains were collected from the canopy and windshield at the initial point of impact and from other locations on the exterior of the helicopter. 

"Other locations on the exterior?" Whaaat? Gee, sounds like maybe more than one bird to me. But whether it was a single bird or a flock does not matter.  One bird is all it took.  It hit the canopy, perfectly centered, I guess, at the top of the windscreens and broke BOTH of them sufficiently that there were holes big enough to allow air to rush in and push BOTH fire handles back - *and* knocked both "throttles" out of their detents. Definitely not a parakeet.

So, fine, play your stupid little semantic, nit-picky, I'm-smarter-than-you game of, "There was no evidence that the bird penetrated the windscreen." Right, the hole(s) in the shattered windscreens were caused by something else. My bad.

meet kettle.

What would be your suggestion for a min altitude en route, pray tell?  Whats the typical altitudes you fly, both day & night?

90% of the bird strikes occur below 3000 AGL.  Most EMS enroute altitudes are below 3000 AGL.

Your turn.

Point taken.  

hates to be corrected. shatters his delusion

"this neurotic obsession to always be right and let everyone know it"

the lack of self awareness here is amazing.

at his low altitude, which is the point and why faa wants you higher bro