Boeing Aircraft and Bird Strikes; Recent Safety Issues Involving Bird Strikes and Aircraft

Running head: AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

Boeing Aircraft and Bird Strikes;

Recent Safety Issues Involving Bird Strikes and Aircraft

Cindy Cagle

Baker College of Auburn Hills

AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the past 100 years plus, bird strikes affecting aircraft of every kind have increased dramatically, with increases more than 4 fold since 1990 alone. So far, only 219 people have been killed but evidence shows that these numbers are on the rise.

Bird populations have increased tremendously with the increase in humans. Food is easier to find as well as shelter. With the human population increases, we have moved into the wildlife territory and air traffic has increased. These growing numbers in bird strikes are causing concern over the widening possibilities of injuries and deaths involving aircraft; and will likely continue as both bird and human populations continue to grow.

New prevention measures are being explored and older measures are being expanded. This report shows statistics in bird population explosions, human population explosions, current remedies, and investigations and research on new technologies. It also includes my own idea on a possible solution.

AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

INTRODUCTION

Boeing has more than 12,100 Commercial Airplanes in service that fly both passengers and freight "more efficiently than competing models in the market" according to Boeing.com. But even if this were true, just recently, bird strikes with aircraft have come into the picture through news media, but are not a new phenomenon. These strikes are on the rise due to bird population explosions, governmental protections of species, and human encroachment into previous wildlife territories among other less significant reasons.

Collisions between planes and birds "have more than quadrupled to 7,666 in 2007 from 1,759 in 1990 and only about 20% of strikes are reported" according to a report by the FAA's Wildlife Strike Database and the Department of Agriculture (U.S. News, 2009). It also said that 98% of the reports involved birds. In November of 2011, Air Safety Week reported that 121,000 strikes were reported from 1990 to 2010.

Thomas Zambito of Reuters Inc. stated "Never mind unruly passengers, baggage fees and wind shear. The real scourges of air traffic these days are black-bellied plovers, herring gulls and yellow-bellied sapsuckers, aviation experts say" (Reuters, 2012).

The first Bird Strike in recorded history was in 1905 and was witnessed by Orville Wright. The first known fatality involved a military plan in 1912 according to An Overview of the Bird Hazard Threat to Aircraft at Airsafe.com. The FAA also disclosed that;

on October 4, 1960, Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 was struck by a flock of European

AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

starlings during takeoff. All four engines were damaged and the aircraft crashed in

the Boston harbor. There were 62 fatalities. This incident occurred prior to the

creation of the FAA Wildlife Strike Database.

The majority of strikes occur at less than 100 feet above the ground, 92% occur at or below 3,000 Feet. Most major damage or deaths involving bird strikes are from birds such as: Sandhill cranes, Canadian Geese, Waterfowl, Raptors (Hawks and Kestrels), Gulls, and Eagles. Most of these birds weight more than 4 pounds. The male Eagle typically weighs 9.1 pounds and the female weighs 11.8 pounds. A Canadian goose weighs in at 12 pounds. If this same goose strikes an aircraft, going 150mph, the energy is equivalent to a 1,000 pound weight dropped at a height of 10 feet. Imagine a White Pelican with a weight of 25 pounds, hitting an aircraft! There are more birds now than there used to be due to the increased access to food, water, and shelter.

The North American Canadian Goose has increased its population from 1 million in 1990 to more than 3.9 million in 2009. The Bald Eagle has gone from less than 400 pairs in 1970 to more than 13,000 pairs in 2010.

Of course, the majority of incidents occur at or near airports; and airports near wetlands or wildlife preserves pose the most problems. They are at a higher risk of strike hazards than anywhere else but they are not the only places. Strikes also occur near migration routes, lakes, rivers, streams, mountains, and wildlife preserves.

AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

Strikes aren't caused by bird population increases alone but by human populations as well. As the human population expands, it expands outward, taking out trees that used to be homes for the birds. Increases in human population create territory infringement issues as well. As the human population expands into the previously wildlife territory, the birds have nowhere to go. And to top it off, our population expansion has also created the economic expansion of aircraft as well. With all the people now able to go anywhere in the world, both aircraft and airport facilities have grown. All these things contribute to the ever growing threat of bird strikes that may cause more deaths and catastrophic events in the future. Boeing is looking at doing something about it.

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

Between 1988 and 1992, over 25,000 bird strikes were reported and over 70% of them involved large jets weighing over 60,000 pounds, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The (CAA), Civil Aviation Administration of the United Kingdom, estimates that they have reported bird strikes involving their aircraft weighing over 12,500 pounds, about once in every 1000 flights.

Alan Levin of USA Today stated in an article updated April 6, 2009 that aircraft now have 62% more bird strikes since the 1990s. He obtained this figure from government data through the Federal Aviation Administration's database. The graph below shows the number

AIRCRAFT BIRD STRIKES

increase from the 1990s through 2007