Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Killing wildlife hasn't made flying safer

From NJ.com:

When a flock of Canada geese collided with US Airways flight 1549, forcing Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to ditch the plane in the Hudson River in 2009, the threat that wildlife poses to aviators exploded onto the national stage.

Since then, ridding New Jersey’s airport runways of animals has become daily business for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Since 2008, the agency has killed nearly 6,000 animals, mainly birds, that have congregated in areas it deemed to be a threat to aircraft safety at Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports.

The problem is, these efforts are having no significant impact. The birds, it seems, don’t know that they are supposed to be scared away.

An analysis of Port Authority and Federal Aviation Administration data by The Star-Ledger shows that though the agency has expanded its wildlife management program considerably since 2009, wildlife collisions with aircraft at New Jersey airports have not declined.

Though most wildlife strikes do not cause any issue, several planes arriving or departing from New Jersey airports typically do sustain damage each year.

An aircraft at one of the Port Authority’s New Jersey airports collides with an animal, typically a bird, about once every two days — a figure that has remained virtually unchanged every year since 2008, the year before the Flight 1549 crash.

During that time, however, the number of animals — from European starlings to foxes to the threatened American kestrel — killed by the Port Authority has skyrocketed. In Newark, for example, just 10 animals were killed by the agency in 2008, while 1,267 were killed two years later.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about we force all the gov't officials that sanctioned the killing of wild animals to several years of running around on the tarmac to clear the birds?

These people are such incredible assholes. There are humane ways of dealing with this - border collies!!!!

But then we'd have to worry about the border collies being mistreated - and they probably would be given the third-rate lowlifes and hacks hired by NYC.

Or better yet - reduce the number of flights - might cut down on the number of illegals in Queens!!!!

Triple the price of flights - let's make flying fun and sophisticated again!

GinaS13 said...

This infuriates me. A spotted owl or a fox is not going to bring down a plane. These are just some gun happy goons going hunting in the name of "aviation safety". Whomever is encouraging this need to lose their jobs.

ron s said...

Not surprising given that the PA is composed of thugs, unqualified assholes, political appointees of douchebag "I didn't know anything" Christie, arrogant fratboys/girls who endanger peoples lives through the bridge closing, board members who cannot follow their own PA residence rules etc. etc. What a cesspool. Needs draining, drying out and a complete overhaul.

Anonymous said...

Any excuse to have a fun day shooting a gun for these imbuciles. Leave wildlife alone, and stop using our tax dollars for such nonsense that's not working.