Airspace Competition

Large bird species which weigh over 4 pounds are becoming a concern in the US:





The problem of planes hitting birds comes down to a key fact: "We're competing for airspace." Birds get ingested by the airplanes engine during their flight. Great success in Wildlife coonservation programms may also post a problem. It is so difficult to draw the fine line. I guess I should leave this problem to Narawan! haha...The pilot, with 40 years of experience in the aviation industry, became a 'hero' after accomplishing a safe, professional and calm landing in a river and all 155 passengers were safe and sound.

Why do accidents like this occur?

1)Populations of large birds have increased dramatically since the 1970s, when environmental regulations were instituted in the United States. Birds have become more accustomed to living in urban environments near airports and the number of airline flights has risen sharply.

2)Another important factor is modern turbofan aircraft like the Airbus 320. Their engines are much quieter than older aircraft. And almost all the noise comes out of the back of the engine. Birds are less able to hear or see modern aircraft. There are more airplanes in the sky, more birds in the sky and this is where the conflict comes in.



What can be done to prevent these strikes?

1)One is habitat management at the airport to make it as sterile as possible for birds -- by eliminating standing water, keeping grass where you don't have weeds producing seeds which attract birds, reducing perching areas for the birds, posts and things birds can perch on, covering up garbage, not allowing landfills close to an airport, making an airport as sanitary as possible.

That would also include rodent control -- eliminating small mammals that owls and hawks might be attracted to -- and insect controls. Habitat management is the No. 1 defense.

2)The second is dispersal of birds by a trained bird control crew that goes out and uses pyrotechnics and other means to scare the birds away when they do come onto the airport. Some airports use trained dogs. A few airports train falcons. The idea is to scare the birds, harass the birds.

3)The third area is removal of birds when the habitat management and dispersal do not work. Sometimes Canada geese become accustomed to the harassment and they're not scared by it anymore. Airports get permits to remove some Canada geese by using a shotgun to demonstrate to the other birds that this is not a place to be. These are very selective lethal controls.

Now, with regard to aircraft, there is research under way looking at can you enhance the visibility of aircraft to birds, using UV reflective paint since birds can see in the UV-range and using flashing lights. This is just in an experimental stage.

One final area of research is the use of bird-detecting radar to help air traffic control and pilots to detect the birds and help drive planes around concentrations of birds. This is not operational, it's in a developmental stage.