BIRD-AIRPLANE COLLISIONS ON INCREASE, FAA SAYS
There are more planes and more large birds flying around, and collisions between them are happening five times more often than they did in 1990, a new federal report says, sometimes with deadly results.
The victims could fill a novice bird-watcher's bucket list: blackpoll warbler, double-crested cormorant, American black duck, short-billed dowitcher, black-crowned night heron, magnolia warbler, budgerigar and green-winged teal.
The other victims could fill an airplane repair shop: several Boeing 737s, a Boeing 717, a Beechjet 400, a Boeing 747, a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 767.Birds and jet airplanes don't play well together.
This fact made news in 2009 when Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River after a flock of geese stalled both of its engines.
Such encounters don't all turn out that well. In 1960, a flock of European starlings was blamed for an Eastern Airlines crash into Boston Harbor that killed 62 people.
09/09/2012 : Ashley Halsey III / The Seattle Times.
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