"there was no actual damage to the plane and there's indeed some speculation that it may have even been a plastic bag or something."
This is an amazingly flimsy basis for a headline.
This is an amazingly flimsy basis for a headline.
Contrary to popular conception, most airline pilots are very poor at recognising anything that isn't in their company fleet. A few are aircraft enthusiasts, a few are bird spotters. The remainder have knowledge of unexpected flying objects no better than most laymen and a lot worse than a school-age plane spotter.
I used to run aircraft recognition training for a local cadet squadron. The 'pro-pilots' were uniformly awful.