Bird strike
[9] In addition to property damage, collisions between man-made structures and conveyances and birds is a contributing factor, among many others, to the worldwide decline of many avian species.
Most large commercial jet engines include design features that ensure they can shut down after ingesting a bird weighing up to 1.8 kg (4.0 lb).
Based on US National Transportation Safety Board recommendations following US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009, EASA proposed in 2017 that engines should also be capable of sustaining a bird strike in descent.
This grass is planted to reduce runoff, control erosion, absorb jet wash, allow passage of emergency vehicles, and to be aesthetically pleasing.
Turfgrass planted at airports should be a species that geese do not prefer (e.g. St. Augustine grass) and should be managed in such a way that reduces its attractiveness to other wildlife such as small rodents and raptors.
They are commonly launched from a 12 gauge shotgun or a flare pistol, or from a wireless specialized launcher and as such, can be aimed to allow control personnel to "steer" the species that is being harassed.
[41] Screamer type cartridges are still intact at the end of their flight (as opposed to exploding shells that destroy themselves) constituting a foreign object damage hazard and must be picked up.
[30][29] In 2012, operators at Gloucestershire Airport in England stated that songs by the American-Swiss singer Tina Turner were more effective than animal noises for scaring birds from its runways.
Between 2008 and 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services personnel relocated 606 red-tailed hawks from airports in the United States after the failure of multiple harassment attempts.
A nesting colony of laughing gulls at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge contributed to 98–315 bird strikes per year, in 1979–1992, at adjacent John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
AHAS is now an integral part of military low-level mission planning, with aircrew being able to access the current bird hazard conditions at a dedicated website.
After a decade of using AHAS for avoiding routes with severe ratings, the strike percentage associated with low-level flight operations has been reduced to 12% and associated costs cut in half.
Avian radar[49] is an important tool for aiding in bird strike mitigation as part of overall safety management systems at civilian and military airfields.
Properly designed and equipped avian radars can track thousands of birds simultaneously in real-time, night and day, through 360 degrees of coverage, out to ranges of 10 km (6.2 mi) and beyond for flocks, updating every target's position (longitude, latitude, altitude), speed, heading, and size every 2–3 seconds.
Data from these systems can be used to generate information products ranging from real-time threat alerts to historical analyses of bird activity patterns in both time and space.
The FAA and United States Department of Defense (DoD) have conducted extensive science-based field testing and validation of commercial avian radar systems for civil and military applications, respectively.
In 2003, a US company, DeTect, developed the only production model bird radar in operational use for real-time, tactical bird–aircraft strike avoidance by air traffic controllers.
After extensive evaluation and on-site testing, MERLIN technology was chosen by NASA and was ultimately used for detecting and tracking dangerous vulture activity during the 22 Space Shuttle launches from 2006 to the conclusion of the program in 2011.
[57][58] The first recorded bird strike fatality was reported in 1912 when aero-pioneer Calbraith Rodgers collided with a gull which became jammed in his aircraft control cables.
The aircraft crashed at Muan International Airport after a runway excursion into a concrete structure during a belly landing, resulting in 179 fatalities out of 181 occupants.
[64] On September 22, 1995, a U.S. Air Force Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft (Callsign Yukla 27, serial number 77-0354), crashed shortly after takeoff from Elmendorf AFB.
[60] On November 10, 2008, Ryanair Flight 4102 from Frankfurt to Rome made an emergency landing at Ciampino Airport after multiple bird strikes caused both engines to fail.
[72] On August 15, 2019, Ural Airlines Flight 178 from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol, Crimea, suffered a bird strike after taking off from Zhukovsky and crash landed in a cornfield 5 kilometers away from the airport.
[74] During the 1952 edition of the Carrera Panamericana, Karl Kling and Hans Klenk suffered a bird strike incident when the Mercedes-Benz W194 was struck by a vulture in the windscreen.
According to fellow driver Innes Ireland's testimony in a mid-1980s edition of Road & Track magazine, spectators claimed that a bird had flown into Stacey's face while he was approaching the curve.
Ireland stated that the impact might have knocked him unconscious, or possibly killed him by breaking his neck or inflicting a fatal head injury even before the car crashed.
On March 30, 1999, during the inaugural run of the hypercoaster Apollo's Chariot in Virginia, passenger Fabio Lanzoni suffered a bird strike by a goose and required three stitches to his face.
Future United States Air Force general Henry H. Arnold, as a young officer, nearly lost control of his Wright Model B in 1911 after a bug flew into his eye while he was not wearing goggles, distracting him.
The accumulated insect remains on the windshield severely impaired the flight crew's forward visibility; as a result, while descending to land at Milwaukee, the aircraft suffered a mid-air collision with a private Cessna 150 that the Convair's flight crew had been unable to see until a split second before the collision, killing the three occupants of the Cessna and severely injuring the Convair's first officer.
The team on the US TV show MythBusters – in a 2010 episode entitled "Bug Special" – concluded that death could occur if a motorist were hit by a flying insect of sufficient mass in a vulnerable part of the body.
