Birds striking planes up five-fold since 1990; Sullenberger calls experience key

(CBS News) For the second time in less than a week, a passenger jet has been forced to make an emergency landing after hitting birds. On Tuesday night, a JetBlue flight took off from Westchester County, N.Y. bound for West Palm Beach, Fla., when it collided with at least two Canada geese. The birds hit the windshield, blocking the pilots view:

Controller: JetBlue 571 contact New York departure 120.8.

Pilot: JetBlue 571, we gotta come back. We hit two big geese.

Controller: JetBlue 571, roger, and uh, standby.

The plane returned to the airport and none of the 58 people on board was hurt.

Last Thursday, a flock of birds damaged the engine of a Los Angeles-bound Delta flight after take-off from New York's Kennedy Airport. That same day, Vice President Biden's plane hit birds during a landing in California.

Over the past two decades, bird strikes have increased from nearly 1,800 a year to more than 9,600.

An expert on bird strikes is Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, who landed his US Airways flight on the Hudson River after birds knocked out both engines in 2009. Now as CBS News aviation and safety expert, Sullenberger spoke with "Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley about the trend. A transcript follows.

Bird strike forces emergency JetBlue landing
Fla.-bound jet makes emergency landing in NY

Pelley: Sully, why has the number of bird strikes increased so dramatically?

Sullenberger: Scott, the bird populations have increased and we're flying more flights now that we've ever had before.

Pelley: What could airports do about this?

Sullenberger: Effective land-use planning around local airports is the best to prevent birds from roosting near the airport. It's important that we not build anywhere near an airport anything likely to attract birds, especially trash facilities.

Pelley: You don't want to build a garbage dump next to an airport, for example?

Sullenberger: Exactly. In fact, in New York City right now there are plans to do just that, and it's a terrible idea to build something that is likely to attract birds.

Pelley: "Seagull magnets" you might call them. You know, I wonder how much does pilot training have to do with bringing the plane back successfully?

Sullenberger: As much as training is important, it's real-world operational experience that's necessary to handle kind of ambiguous situations like a bird strike. What's really important is that during the FAA current rule-making on the minimum amount of pilot experience that pilots have to have were raising it from the unbelievably low level of currently 250 hours to be an airline pilot, to at least 1,500 hours. But there's great industry pressure to water it down.

Pelley: The FAA wants to increase the number of flight hours to qualify to be an airline pilot from 250 hours to 1,500 hours -- I wonder how many hours did you and your flight officer have when you landed that airplane in the Hudson?

Sullenberger: Together, we had over 75 years of flying experience and 40,000 hours in the air. And the workload and the time pressure on Flight 1549 landing on the Hudson was so extreme, I didn't have time to tell the first officer what to do. Had he had only 400 or 500 hours of flying time, we could have not had as good an outcome.

Pelley: 40,000 flight hours together. Sully, thank you.

[GrrlScientist]

there are several inaccuracies in this report. FIRST, birds are not necessarily attracted to airports, airports are attracted to BIRDS! by this, i mean that many (most?) US airports are built directly in the flyways followed by migrating birds, and frequently, those airports are right next door to what are known as refueling stops that these migrating birds have relied upon for millennia. so obviously, the "bird strike problem" is a manmade problem. building airports somewhere other than a migratory pathway followed by birds since before humans came down from the trees is a reasonable alternative.

SECOND: bird populations are NOT INCREASING. with a few rare exceptions, bird populations are in decline throughout north america and around the world. i think that captain sullenberger meant to say that the populations of sedentary canada geese are increasing. once agin, this is a manmade problem, for two reasons: first, there was a time long ago when people residing on estates wanted to encourage canada geese to live on the grounds year-round. through the use of pinioning to stop the birds from flying away, combined with captive breeding, a non-migratory population of canada geese was established. these birds have done what humans have always done under similar circumstances: they are being fruitful and are multiplying. because canada geese are herbivorous, these populations are further encouraged by the presence of large grassy areas -- golf courses, parks and outdoor playing fields, manicured private yards and grassy infields at airports. there are several solutions to address this problem: flying hawks to scare geese from local wetlands, training dogs to harass/chase geese on playing fields, and spraying grape kool-aid to playing fields (apparently, canada geese don't like the taste).

THIRD: creating yet more garbage dumps for large cities to dispose of their rubbish is the source of the "gull problem", which is the twin to the "canada goose problem". unlike grass-eating canada geese, gulls eat human trash. as human waste increases, SOME (not all!) gull species are increasing their population numbers in response to the easy pickings at city dumps. this is another manmade problem that can be addressed, too: organic garbage (food waste in particular) makes really fine compost, and by educating people to sort out their organic waste, the city could initiate a compost program that would benefit city gardeners, local farmers and by extension, everyone else.

just wanted to make sure that your reader(s) got some accurate information about the issue and also read a few suggestions as to how the "bird strike problem" can be addressed. i have only told you about a few of the many non-lethal ways to deal with these problems.

[audemus]

Can't the airlines install some sort of screening over the engines intake ? I know that wouldn't be of much use in windshield collisions, but most incidents that put planes in dangerous situations are a result of birds going into the engines.

[rwsmith29456]

I'd hope my pilot would be capable of landing a plane with one wing.

[mick7744]

This airline pilot, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger was hailed as a hero for bringing his aircraft down on the Hudson River safely...

When the REAL hero of the day was the licensed glider pilot instructor...MR Chesley Sullenberger

I think many experienced flight crews might not have fared so well as "Sully" did...