SOME SIGNIFICANT WILDLIFE STRIKES TO CIVIL AIRCRAFT IN THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 1990–DECEMBER 2006

Authors

Sandra Wright, U.S. Department of AgricultureFollow

Date of this Version

January 2007

Comments

Published by U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services. Permission to use. For more information on wildlife strikes or to report a strike, visit www.birdstrike.org or http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov.

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through an interagency agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, compiles a database of all reported wildlife strikes to U.S. civil aircraft and to foreign carriers experiencing strikes in the USA. We have compiled over 66,000 strike reports from 1,528 airports, January1990 through December 2005 (over 7,100 strikes in 2005), but estimate that this represents only about 20% of the strikes that have occurred. The following examples from the database are presented to show the serious impacts that strikes by birds or other wildlife can have on aircraft. These examples, from throughout the USA, demonstrate the widespread and diverse nature of the problem. The examples are not intended to highlight or criticize individual airports because strikes have occurred on almost every airport in the USA. Many of the strike examples reported here occurred off airport property during approach or departure.