How Often Do Planes Experience Bird Strikes?
Almost fifty bird strikes are reported daily on average. Only a fraction of those cause any significant damage.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, an average of 47 aircraft strikes are reported daily. The vast majority of those, some 97% of bird strikes, occur close to takeoff or landings. Bird strikes generally happen below 3,000 feet but have occasionally been reported as high as 15,000 ft (4,500 meters).
The rate of bird strikes is still incredibly low compared to the number of planes in the air at any given time. In the US, less than 3 per 10,000 departures between 2009 to 2018 were affected. And only a tiny portion of strikes, between 2% and 8%, result in any significant aircraft damage.
How often do they happen?
In the first three months of 2022, leading up to March 31st, there were a total of 1,696 strikes reported in the United States, Only twelve of those reported sustaining damage.
Of the impacted aircraft, two were hit by hawks, another two by wood ducks, with the remaining fowl including a Peregrine falcon, Lesser scaup, Turkey vulture, White-tailed tropicbird, Snow goose, and two unknown birds, one of which was “large.”
Just this week, there have been several notable incidents. On Sunday evening, the Arsenal Women’s Football Club suffered a bird strike and aborted takeoff after flames were spotted coming from the engine of their Boeing 737-800.
Also, on Sunday, an American Airlines 737 was hit by a flock of geese departing Columbus Airport in Ohio. Flames were coming out of the right engine, and the pilots made the call to return to the departing airport, landing safely shortly later.
On Tuesday, two separate United Airlines flights departing Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport were forced to make emergency landings after presumed bird strikes. Flight UA847 bound for Chile reported hearing a loud “pop” at the front-right exterior of the aircraft. Meanwhile, Flight 2086 bound for Las Vegas experienced a similar “very loud strike” at the front of the plane, forcing it to return after less than twenty minutes aloft.
Strikes do not always involve birds. In 2020, birds were only involved in 94% of reported strikes. The remaining incidents feature bats (3.2%), terrestrial mammals (2.3%), and reptiles, with just 0.5 of all impacts.
This year, there has only been one terrestrial animal to strike an aircraft so far. An Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 business jet hit a white-tailed deer on March 21st at Jimmy Carter Regional Airport in Georgia.
Interestingly, the Smithsonian provides animal/bird identification services free of charge to US-registered aircraft owners and operators involved in a strike. If feathers are unavailable, museum experts can determine the species through DNA from a swab of the biological material.
How often are they serious?
The FAA says the plane’s speed and the bird’s size are the main factors determining if the strike causes enough damage to force an emergency landing. Modern jet engines are designed to withstand ingesting a significant amount of debris, so the damage from objects such as birds and ice is often inconsequential.
Less than 5% of reported strikes are damaging. In the thirty years from 1988 to 2018, wildlife strikes claimed the lives of approximately 280 people and destroyed around 260 aircraft globally.
Simple Flying BYJONATHAN E. HENDRY
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