Friday January 16, 2009
Bird strikes - really so rare?
It’s already one of the defining images of 2009 – the photograph of a US Airways plane floating in the Hudson river, its passengers being led to safety from the wings. New Yorkers are calling it the Miracle on the Hudson, and they would be right.
The plane was brought down, it is widely reported, by a double bird strike – in other words, birds were ingested into both of its engines, which meant the plane lost power and the pilot had to ditch. For birds to bring down an airliner is, thankfully, very rare – but that doesn’t mean the bird strikes themselves are rare. In fact, experts say, they happen more often than you would care to imagine.
Twenty-five years ago, I was on a plane that was involved in a bird strike. We were flying British Airways from Larnaca, Cyprus, to London Heathrow, and we had started our takeoff roll when – bang! – a bird was ingested into our right engine. For a second or two, it was seriously scary – but we slowed down rapidly and the plane stopped well before the end of the runway. Minus one bird, minus one engine, we went back for an extra night in a Larnaca hotel.
Between 1990 and 2004, according to the Bird Strike Committee USA, a group formed to collate and analyse accurate data on bird strikes, there were 56,000 reported bird strikes in the US alone – which may be a fraction of the true total, the committee says. The problem may never be eradicated, but anti-bird strike measures are needed, especially in airports near lakes and estuaries where birds congregate.
Here in Cyprus, there is increased attention on bird strikes after a series of recent incidents. Two months ago, a Cyprus Airways plane hit a flock of birds at Larnaca, according to the Cyprus Mail. There were 28 strikes between April and August 2007, of which 18 were at Paphos, the newspaper reported.
One of the biggest fears among Cyprus Airways pilots is hitting one of the flamingoes from the salt lake, a protected area right next to Larnaca airport. As greater flamingoes can grow more than a metre long and weigh eight pounds, you’ll know about it when you hit one of those.
Commenting is closed for this article.
All content © Chris Alden. Original design by Andy Brockie, adapted by Chris Alden over the years.