Bird Strike Committee Proceedings
Date of this Version
September 2007
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Aircraft collisions with birds and other wildlife are an increasing concern for the aviation industry. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), through agreements with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, developed a National Wildlife Strike Database to better define the wildlife strike problem. Annual reports that summarize the data (about 72,500 strike records for civil aircraft in USA, 1990-2006) provide a foundation for FAA national policies and guidance regarding research and management efforts to reduce wildlife strikes. However, these national analyses do not provide specific information regarding strikes at individual airports or for other specific user groups. Our objective was to expand the utility of the database by providing an automatically generated Airport Wildlife Strike Summary and Risk Analysis Report for airports. Each report, updated annually and accessible on-line with a password, provides an airport with total and damaging strike numbers and strike rates per 100,000 aircraft movements for the past year and with mean numbers for the past 5 years. The report then compares these rates with regional and national averages for airports in the same size class. The report also documents the wildlife species that, based on past damaging strike records, need to be emphasized in risk management activities. This information provides airports with an objective baseline to aid in the evaluation of their wildlife risk mitigation programs. Such evaluations are required annually in the USA under 14CFR.139.337. This report presently is available for each of the 434 Part 139- certificated USA airports that have strike records included in the database for the last five years.