Oregon Public Broadcasting

Birds may have been responsible for the emergency landing of a commercial jet on the Hudson River Thursday.  Birds are a problem at airports around the country.

As Pete Springer reports, the Portland airport has some innovative ways to keep birds and jetliners away from each other.

The Port of Portland uses loud noises fired from remote controlled cannons to scare birds away from PDX.

But their newest bird tool is a handheld laser beam. 

Steve Johnson is a spokesman for the Port.

Steve Johnson “It shoots a beam up to a mile away and when we bring that beam near the bird, not on the bird, but near the bird, they see it as a solid object coming their way and it scares them away.”

Johnson says air traffic controllers also keep an eye out for birds.

That helps port staff  know where to fire cannons, aim laser beams, and where to chase  birds away.

The Port is also experimenting with large floating balls on nearby ponds.

Johnson says birds avoid those areas.

But he says despite the bird control efforts, last year there about a hundred reported bird and aircraft strikes at PDX.

Three of those resulted in minor damage to planes.