Bird Strike Committee Proceedings
Date of this Version
10-23-2008
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 82,057 strike reports from 1,418 USA airports and 207 foreign airports for January 1990 through December 2007 (7,666 strikes in 2007), 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. For more information on wildlife strikes or to report a strike, visit www.birdstrike.org. or http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov.