"Bird-vs-plane" collision expert dies
Roxie C. Laybourne, whose scientific investigations into bird collisions with airplanes helped start forensic ornithology and enabled engineers to develop aircraft capable of withstanding such accidents, died on Aug. 7 at her farm in Manassas, Va. She was 92.
In 1960, when a plane crashed taking off from Logan Airport in Boston, killing all 62 people aboard, Ms. Laybourne, then a scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, helped investigators conclude that the cause was a flock of starlings caught in one of its engines.
Having only charred remains to work with, she developed a novel way to remove oil and gasoline from bits of feathers while keeping them suitable for microscopic examination. Using a microscope, she could then pinpoint minute structural characteristics and identify the bird species or family based on the feathers.
Over the next decades, Ms. Laybourne helped identify thousands of birds involved in collisions with commercial and military aircraft. Her work gave plane manufacturers information for designing engines that could continue to fly after ingesting the birds, and it helped ornithologists create bird management programs to prevent flocks from gathering near airports.
(New York Times)