Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Bird strikes such as the suspected culprit in the downing of a US Airways jetliner in New York yesterday are a regular, though relatively rare, event at Rhode Island's main airport.

A total of 38 bird strikes -- including airlines, cargo carriers and general aviation flights -- were reported at T.F. Green Airport last year, according to Kevin A. Dillon, president of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the state agency that runs Green and several smaller state airports.

"People shouldn't be overly concerned because, in relative terms, it's a rare occurrence," Dillon said today. "We don't have what I would consider a significant bird-control issue at the airport."

A bird strike is reported about once every 10 days. With about 250 takeoffs and landings a day, that means a plane has about a 1 in 2,500 chance of encountering a bird. Even then, Dillon said, "The bird strikes that we typically see are small birds. We don't typically have a waterfowl problem, which would be larger birds. To my knowledge, no significant incident has occurred at the airport."

Since 1986, Federal Aviation Administration records report two incidents similar to what appears to have happened at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, when the jet's engines appear to have ingested birds, which caused the engines to shut down. In both cases at Green, the planes kept flying and made routine landings.

Green has a wildlife control program, as is required for all airports, that includes dealing with birds, deer and other animals. As part of the program, airport personnel monitor the number of birds observed in the area of the airport. Last year, an estimated 33,000 birds were spotted, with starlings and doves among the most common.

When birds pose a threat to aircraft, they are removed.

"Typically, it involves just harassment," said Dillon. "That's the optimum method: to just get them to leave the area."

The airport uses loud speakers, sirens and fireworks to drive birds off. If that fails, the airport has a federal permit to shoot the birds. "That's kind of a last resort, and that's very carefully controlled under our permit," Dillon said.

 Tags  New York City plane crash T.F. Green

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