An item I picked up from a aviation news bulletin (forget which)
Robert Dolbeer, Ph.D., a recently retired USDA ornithologist who has studied aircraft bird strikes for more than three decades, predicts the recent bird strike that forced the US Airways A320 ditching in the Hudson River may portend an increased rate of such mishaps.
"The US Airways crash was an accident waiting to happen," Dolbeer explained last Tuesday. "In 1990, the population of Canada geese was estimated to be about one million. In 2008, the estimated population was four million." Dolbeer also said there have been large increases in the populations of bald eagles, ospreys, sandhill cranes, black and turkey vultures, plus white pelicans during the same period -- pointing out that there has been a corresponding increase in the number of aircraft bird strikes.
FAA statistics indicate that there were 1,738 reported bird strikes in 1990. There were 7,439 reported bird strikes in 2007.
Nesting sites and wildlife refuges near airports that attract waterfowl species put the flying public at risk, says Dolbeer. A Canada goose can weigh 15 pounds to 20 pounds, far in excess of the four- to eight-pound bird test requirements for typical aircraft airframes and engines. Other species also are substantially larger than FAA standard size birds used for certification testing. Fred George