FAA releases data on 89,000 wildlife strikes

Airplane collisions with birds or other animals have resulted in five fatalities and 93 injuries and destroyed 28 aircraft since 2000, with New York's Kennedy airport and Sacramento International reporting the most cases with serious damage, according to Federal Aviation Administration data released for the first time yesterday. The FAA list of wildlife strikes, published on the Internet, details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990. Most cases were bird strikes, but deer and other animals have been hit on runways, too. The situation seems to be getting worse: Airplane collisions with birds have more than doubled at 13 major US airports since 2000, including New Orleans, Houston's Hobby, Kansas City, Orlando, and Salt Lake City. Wildlife specialists say that birds, particularly large ones like Canada geese, are increasingly finding food near near cities and airports and living there year round rather than migrating. The figures are known to be far from complete. Even the FAA estimates its voluntary reporting system captures only 20 percent of wildlife strikes. But the agency has refused for a decade to adopt a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation to make the reports mandatory...AP