It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Recipe for Disaster
U.S. Air Force troops in Texas are facing some serious hazards in the air: birds. They may seem benign, but they can cause real damage to aircraft. Remember the Miracle on the Hudson?
Birds near the runways of Randolph Air Force Base have become such a danger to pilots, they’ve formed a special unit to combat the problem. Maj. Jason Powell, flight instructor and part of the Randolph’s Bird Dispersal Team, says that the layout of the base makes it especially prone to flocks of birds.
“Our runways at Randolph are on the outside of the base, and the housing and the trees and the environment are in between the runways,” Powell says. “So we attract a lot of birds to that environment in the middle and they fly out over our runways.”
Birds as small as a four-swift can render a jet engine inoperable if they get sucked in, Powell says. But the main problem bird at the base is the white-winged dove, which is considerably larger and flies in big flocks. He estimates that as many as 15,000 to 20,000 birds live on the base at any given time. On average, the base has about 70 bird strikes a year, even more during rainy years.
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-recipe-for-disaster/#
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