Category: News

Wide-eyed glare scares raptors

Oct 22, 2018 News by Gary Searing
A new research paper published in the scientific journal PLoS One has found google eyes to be effective at reducing bird-on-plane collisions at airports. A team of scientists from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Rennes, with some help from the Airbus corporation, applied their knowledge of avian physiology to […]

Shepherding birds with drones

Oct 15, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Engineers at Caltech have developed a new control algorithm that enables a single drone to herd an entire flock of birds away from the airspace of an airport. The algorithm is presented in a study in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The project was inspired by the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” when US Airways Flight 1549 […]

Drones Could Keep Birds Away from Airports

Sep 1, 2018 News by Gary Searing
We all know it. We have all heard of it. The sworn enemy of the pinnacle of human creativity and technology, of our marvelous ability to shorten the distances within the world, an aircraft; the sworn enemy of an aircraft is … a bird. Birds cause countless accidents by flying into the propellers and jets […]

Wildlife Hazards at US AIrports

Aug 28, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials have updated the protocol for reviewing wildlife hazards at US airports, including a ranking of wildlife by the level of threat that they pose to flights. The rankings published in a recent Advisory Circular (AC) intend to guide airport wildlife management personnel and inspectors in prioritizing the wildlife that should […]

Fighter jet crashes after bird strike in Sweden

Aug 21, 2018 News by Gary Searing
A Swedish Gripen jet fighter crashed after colliding with a bird in southern Sweden on Tuesday, August 21, authorities said, adding the pilot ejected safely. “It was a bird collision and the pilot had to eject,” Johan Lundgren, spokesman at the Swedish Armed Forces told AFP. The pilot was on a training mission in the […]

Talon crash in Oklahoma

Aug 17, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Date: 17-AUG-2018 Time: 13:41 LT Type: Northrop T-38 Talon Owner/operator: US Air Force (USAF)/71st Flying Training Wing Registration: 68-8206 C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Mutual, OK –    United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Military Departure airport: Vance AFB […]

Bird strike damage liability

Aug 15, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Introduction On 7 March 2018 the Supreme Court for Administrative Law heard a case where no choice needed to be made – an airplane engine and a bird had collided and met their respective fates. Bird strikes are not uncommon in civil aviation: every year there are approximately 5,000 to 6,000 incidents costing $1.2 billion […]

Painting birds to monitor birdstrike risk in New Zealand

Aug 12, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Wellington’s birds of a feather could be seen flocking together coloured either blue or green. Wellington Airport is weighing up whether to spray birds different colours to help monitor the risk of birdstrike and note bird migration. New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association senior technical officer David Reynolds said marking birds to track them was not […]

Use of drones to move birds away from airports

Aug 7, 2018 News by Gary Searing
Bird strikes on aircraft may be rare, but not so rare that airports shouldn’t take precautions against them. But keeping birds away is a difficult proposition: How do you control the behavior of flocks of dozens or hundreds of birds? Perhaps with a drone that autonomously picks the best path to do so, like this […]

Compost plan and bird-strike risk at Trudeau Airport

Jul 31, 2018 News by Gary Searing
A Gazette investigation reveals the city hasn’t addressed some safety precautions Aéroports de Montréal recommended to reduce risk of bird-plane collisions. The city isn’t heeding some of the safety precautions that Aéroports de Montréal recommended to reduce the risk of bird-plane collisions around a municipal organic waste treatment centre that Montreal is planning to build […]