Delta said Sunday a post-flight inspection showed no damage to the aircraft.

Not surprising, as a firework is designed to disintegrate and the outer surface of a plane is not flammable. Bird strikes are probably a higher risk.

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7bees 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Many fireworks are designed to explode at altitude. The biggest risk is probably if the firework is ingested into an engine (also a major risk for bird strikes).

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fc417fc802 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Given the sheer quantity of energy that's already being continuously released in an engine would a small firework actually pose more danger than a bird? There's no bones in a firework after all.

	▲	userbinator 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Even small bird strikes are usually a non-event, as the engines are designed to withstand them (there's a very well-known YouTube video of frozen chickens being fired into one, and those are already a lot bigger and harder than most birds they'll encounter.) It's the big ones that make the news.

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lazide 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

99% of them also don’t have enough explosive force to do more than damage a hand.

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siriaan 6 hours ago | parent [-]

What about the 1%?

	▲	lazide 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Clearly the plane wasn’t hit by one, eh, or we’d have an entirely different headline.