NTSB Identification: CEN12IA502
Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of UNITED AIR LINES INC
Incident occurred Tuesday, July 31, 2012 in Denver, CO
Aircraft: BOEING 737-924ER, registration: N37420
Injuries: 157 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators used data provided by various sources and may not have traveled in support of this investigation to prepare this aircraft incident report.
On July 31, 2012, about 0909 mountain daylight time, a Boeing 737-924ER, N37420, impacted a large bird while approaching to land at the Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, Colorado. There were no injuries reported. The airplane sustained damage to the radome, pilot side pitot tube, and the vertical stabilizer. The flight crew declared an emergency and continued to DEN making an uneventful landing. The aircraft was registered to Continental Airlines, Inc., and operated by United Airlines as flight 1475 under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a domestic passenger flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), at 0818, and was bound for DEN.

The flight crew reported that during descent for landing, they heard a loud bang from the front of the airplane. According to the flight crew, the pitot static flight instruments in the cockpit were not indicating correctly and they used power settings and aircraft configurations along with air traffic control call outs of their ground speed to continue the flight to DEN.

Examination of the airplane after the incident revealed a large hole in the radome located on the nose of the airplane. Additionally, a portion of the radome had become lodged on the pitot tube located on the left side of the airplane. Additionally, bird remains were found within the left engine, and on the tail of the airplane.

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