Oregon Public Broadcasting

A government database about airplanes that have struck birds has been made public by the Federal Aviation Administration.  But as Pete Springer reports, you won’t find individual airports or airlines in the database.

The online database is limited to searching for bird strikes by bird species across entire states. 

For example in Oregon from 1990 until 2008, 35 geese were reported struck by planes compared to nearly 2000 geese nationwide.

Mike Fergus is an FAA spokesman in Seattle.  He says the data is limited so the public doesn’t get the wrong impression about bird strikes.

Mike Fergus: “So in other words, the perception could get skewed there unrightfully so against an airline or against an airport, which was a concern of course from a commercial standpoint of both airports and airlines.” 

Fergus says bird/plane strikes are not very common considering there are between 4000 and 6000 commercial planes in the air over the U.S. in any given hour.

But the issue gained attention after bird strikes forced a US Airways jet to ditch in the Hudson River in January.

Fergus says the F-A-A is planning a more user friendly database in the near future.

Online:

FAA Bird Strike Database