More flights have run-ins with birds

Wildlife collisions average 40-plus a day

Ten years after a collision with Canada geese forced airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to make his dramatic emergency landing on the Hudson River, pilots and airports report as many bird strikes as ever.

Civilian flights based in the USA reported 14,661 collisions with wildlife in 2018, a USA

TODAY analysis of Federal Aviation Administration data shows.

That’s more than

40 a day, tying the previous year’s record.

The strikes have been blamed in more than 106 civilian deaths worldwide over the past two decades, according to British and Canadian researchers. They cause about $1.2 billion a year in damage.

Why so many collisions? Analysts cite several factors: an increase in flights; changing migratory patterns; bigger, faster, quieter turbofan-powered aircraft, which give birds less

Biologists and aviation officials are engaged in a never-ending cat-and-mouse game in an effort to shoo, move or kill birds in the nation’s flight paths.

time to get out of the way.

One of the biggest factors might be better reporting. The FAA has worked to improve the voluntary reporting system since Sullenberger guided U.S. Airways Flight 1549 – and all of its 155 passengers – to safety after a flock of geese took out both engines in 2009.

“That number has certainly been steadily increasing ever since the ‘Miracle on the Hudson,’ ” says Chris Oswald, vice president of the Airports Council International-North America.

He says the industry is concerned that a change in bird populations – and especially a boom in larger species – could pose a danger to aircraft.

Biologists and aviation officials are engaged in a never-ending cat-andmouse game in an effort to shoo, move or kill birds in the nation’s flight paths.

FAA reports show how disruptive – and dangerous – bird strikes can be:

❚ On Dec. 22, a Republic Airlines flight to Minneapolis hit what the pilot said looked like a hawk while taking off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Five engine blades were damaged, causing the plane to vibrate and the pilot to make an emergency landing. Blood was found in the engine, but the bird’s remains were never found.

❚ The Monday after Thanksgiving, a JetBlue flight in Portland, Oregon, hit a Canada goose just after liftoff. Crew members and passengers felt the impact and heard a loud thud, but the pilot thought it was a blown tire. After circling the airport and burning fuel for 30 minutes, the crew saw the tires were intact but the flaps were damaged. They landed and discovered a 6- to 8-inch hole in the right flap and a 12-inch dent in the engine.

❚ The previous day, airport operations crew in San Francisco heard a loud boom just before an EVA Air flight to Taiwan reported an engine failure. The Boeing 777 dumped more than 36,000 gallons of fuel and made an emergency landing. The suspect was a blue heron; the airline sent the remains to the Smithsonian Institution for testing.

The Smithsonian’s Feather Identification Lab is a sort of “CSI for birds.” It analyzes bird remains known as “snarge” – military slang for “snot garbage” – through feathers and DNA testing.

Those results tell an important story. In Kansas City, for example, they show that most bird strikes involve species such as swallows and meadowlarks – birds that feed on Japanese beetles, which have been a growing infestation in Kansas City in recent years.

Airports harass birds with noisemakers or fake predators, but birds can get acclimated to those attempts and return once they learn the harassment isn’t a threat.

In extreme cases, airports cull the population by shooting the birds.

Bird strikes are about 98 percent of wildlife strikes reported to federal officials, but the database includes hundreds of contacts with other animals, usually at smaller airports.