US Federal Aviation Administration to release bird strike information

[Greg McDonald]

From NEWS.COM.AU:

UNDER pressure from safety investigators, the US Federal Aviation Administration will open its database on incidents of airplanes hitting birds to the public beginning tomorrow.
The FAA has dropped its objection after a month-long review determined that releasing the information would not jeopardise safety by discouraging airlines and airports from reporting bird strikes.

Bird strikes are not uncommon and the issue drew worldwide attention in January when a US Airways jetliner struck a flock of geese shortly after takeoff.

With both engines disabled, the jet landed safely in New York's Hudson River.

Parts of the bird database have long been public, but specific information about airlines and bird-strike locations have been kept confidential to ensure continued cooperation from airlines and airports, which report the incidents voluntarily.

Some information will continue to be redacted to protect privacy, the agency said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates airline and other transportation accidents, told the agency in a letter that a lack of public information "could hamper efforts to understand the nature and potential effects of wildlife threats to aviation".

The safety board believes mandatory reporting of all bird strikes would allow more complete and accurate assessment of the problem.

[Nigel C]

Birdstrike data in Australia is generally freely available from the ATSB website, although airline specific data is not published (probably because it has nothing to do with anyone other than the airline itself).

For a bit of late night reading, here's the link if you're interested...

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/2008/pdf/AR2008027.pdf

[Philip Argy]

Here's an extract that I think conveys the substance of the report:


Birdstrike events resulting in two-engine ingestion that have the
potential to lead to an accident, were even rarer at 0.15 of a percentage point (8 of
5103) between 2002 and 2006. All of the eight aircraft with a two-engine ingestion
were able to maintain a safe altitude and subsequently land without further incident.
Australia continues to maintain a record in which no fatal civil aviation accident has
occurred due to a birdstrike.
In around four per cent of occurrences, pilots elected to perform a precautionary
landing following a birdstrike, mostly returning to the departure point. There were
two birdstrike related loss of control accidents between 2002 and 2006, both
involving helicopters in general aviation (GA). These were serious accidents and
one of the pilots sustained minor injuries.
Along with an increasing number of birdstrike occurrences, aircraft movements
have also increased. Over the years 2002 to 2006, the rate of birdstrikes per 10,000
movements has increased from about one to two occurrences. However, the rate of
damaging birdstrikes per 10,000 movements has remained steady since the 1980s.
There are now more reports of non-damaging birdstrikes per aircraft movement
when compared with 2002.
The probability of birdstrikes changes throughout the year, and is specific to
locations (see the Appendices). The time of day birdstrikes are likely to occur
follows the peak aircraft movement times of 06:00 to 10:00 and 15:00 to 21:00.
Two-thirds of birdstrikes involved regular public transport (RPT) operations,
mostly from high capacity aircraft. Compared with general aviation, RPT
operations were 16 times more likely to sustain a birdstrike. This is possibly related
to aircraft size, speed and better RPT reporting. The rate of birdstrikes per 10,000
movements on RPT aircraft increased from 4.7 in 2002 to 6.7 by 2006.
Two-thirds of birdstrikes occurred during the landing and take-off phases of flight,
with landings accounting for a slightly higher proportion than takeoffs. Most
birdstrikes occurred at an aerodrome (81% of all birdstrikes), or near an aerodrome
(14%). This is to be expected given the concentration of birds near the ground.
The birdstrike rate per 10,000 movements at GAAP aerodromes was considerably
lower than the rate at major aerodromes and regional aerodromes in general. In
addition, the GAAP aerodromes in each capital city all had a lower birdstrike rate
than the major aerodromes in the same city. There was considerable variation
between birdstrike rates at the various aerodromes. However, although the number
of birdstrikes at a location informs industry to a degree about how well it is
controlling birds, location-specific bird populations and bird behaviours also
significantly contribute to the number of birdstrikes at any location.