Canada Geese Fingered In Flight 1549 Crash

Scientists Use DNA And Feather Fragments Taken From Engines To Identify Branta Canadensis As Culprits

(CBS)  A flock of Canada Geese was responsible for the bird strike that knocked out both engines of US Airways Flight 1549, causing the Airbus and its 155 passengers and crew to plunge into the icy Hudson River last month, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

Investigators with the NTSB have not determined how many birds hit the plane, but a single Canadian goose weighs between 5.8 and 10.7 pounds - that's sizable enough to destroy an engine on an Airbus A-320, according to investigators.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Laboratory made the determination that Canadian geese were the culprits by comparing microscopic feather fragments recovered from the plane's engines with feathers in their collection. The lab has evaluated 25 samples of bird remains extracted from both engines at the manufacturer's facility in Cincinnati.

NTSB investigators also worked with wildlife biologists from the United States Department of Agriculture both at the accident scene in New York City and during the engine teardowns.

The plane's right engine was recovered on Jan. 21, 2009, six days after the crash. An examination of the fan blades showed evidence of "soft body impact damage," the NTSB says. "The engine's electronic control unit was missing and numerous internal components of the engine were significantly damaged," according to an NTSB press release.

Bits of the geese were found in the right engine and on the wings and fuselage. Investigators scraped the bits from the plane and external parts of the engine and provided samples to the agriculture department, for DNA testing, before the engines were disassembled. A single feather was found attached to a flap on one wing. That feather was among those used by the Smithsonian lab in its analysis.

For researcher Carla Dove, the dozens of packages received daily at the Smithsonian lab are the black box of bird strike investigations, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano. Tiny clues such as feathers, claws and other remnants left behind when bird meets plane, known as "snarge," are used to analyze bird-strikes. CBS News was given exclusive access to the lab.

Dove and her team eagle-eyed samples from 4,600 bird strikes last year, checking out details ranging from feather structure to DNA.

With the help of the Smithsonian's collection of 62,000 stuffed bird specimens, they can successfully identify a bird 98 percent of the time.

"If you know for example it's a bird that likes to nest on flat areas with low growing grass, if you just let the grass grow sometimes that will discourage those species from coming into the area," says Dove, the lab's director. "It's simple, but it's a complicated process, there is no silver bullet to prevent bird strikes."

Additional tests will be conducted to determine if the birds were resident or migratory.

According to the NTSB, the turbofan engines used on the Airbus A-320 are certified to "withstand the ingestion of a four-pound bird without catching fire, without releasing hazardous fragments through the engine case, without generating loads high enough to potentially compromise aircraft structural components, or without losing the capability of being shut down."

Anything bigger than that, and all bets are off.

[blitzder]

But since they are migratory birds, they are protected by law, so you must stop in the middle of the highway to let them walk across. And they pooh around the fountain and on the walkways. Yuck! Posted by RRozsa at 02:23 PM : Feb 13, 2009.

Just because they are called CANADA GEESE, does not mean they belong to any country. Birds don''t recognize borders. They are free to fly anywhere. And they are a pleasure to watch. Stupid.

[nibaru]

The molecular acceleration reached the zero point which in turn stopped all forward motion resulting in zero lift which is what caused the descent

[erasmus606]

That''''''''s kind of what I meant. Yum.

Kidding.

Posted by daffy64 at 06:29 PM : Feb 13, 2009


I think you were serious!!:)

Posted by erasmus606 at 07:32 PM : Feb 13, 2009

I thought when you said "blast" them, that you meant "yell" at them.

:( Those poor birdies.

[erasmus606]

That''''s kind of what I meant. Yum.

Kidding.

Posted by daffy64 at 06:29 PM : Feb 13, 2009

I think you were serious!!:)

[daffy64]

As a Canadian, you have my permission to blast them.

Posted by daffy64 at 03:06 PM : Feb 13, 2009

Hmmmm,...yeah,......you might want to change the word "blast". There are many Americans that probably think "blast" means "SHOOT".:)

--

That''s kind of what I meant. Yum.

Kidding.

[rickstas]

--Investigators with the NTSB have not determined how many birds hit the plane--

Why do they insist that birds hit the plane. Wasn''t it the other way around? I never heard anybody say a dog hit my car.

[erasmus606]

As a Canadian, you have my permission to blast them.

Posted by daffy64 at 03:06 PM : Feb 13, 2009

Hmmmm,...yeah,......you might want to change the word "blast". There are many Americans that probably think "blast" means "SHOOT".:)

[daffy64]

They are actually called "Canada Geese", not "Canadian Geese". Whatever they are, I sure wish we could get rid of some of them here in Central/Northern Alabama. Lots of them seem to have taken up permanent residence and are quite a nuisance on most of our corporate campuses! But since they are migratory birds, they are protected by law, so you must stop in the middle of the highway to let them walk across. And they pooh around the fountain and on the walkways. Yuck!

---

They do poop everywhere. As a Canadian, you have my permission to blast them.

[daffy64]

I''''''''m pretty sure that snow and ice still covers everything. Since global warming has been such a good topic I''''''''ve yet to see a winter not happen. Coarse I could be wrong are there any Canadiens in here that can confirm that they haven''''''''t seen a winter in awhile. Pretty sure that human presence and our trash is causing them not to fly further south if that is indeed happening. Its not like they are hanging out with the polar bears in the summer.
Posted by patocc at 09:14 AM :

In my state there''''s no ice on the lakes. There''''s no snow on the ground. Yesterday''''s high temp was 60. The record low for Feb. 12 was in 1899. It was a -32. You were saying?

--

Yep. I live in Canada and was walking around in a spring jacket two days ago. IN FEBRUARY. God help us.

[daffy64]

I''''''''''''''''m pretty sure that snow and ice still covers everything. Since global warming has been such a good topic I''''''''''''''''ve yet to see a winter not happen. Coarse I could be wrong are there any Canadiens in here that can confirm that they haven''''''''''''''''t seen a winter in awhile. Pretty sure that human presence and our trash is causing them not to fly further south if that is indeed happening. Its not like they are hanging out with the polar bears in the summer.

---

They''re finding record numbers of polar bears dying as their habitat shrinks. Huge chunks of ice are breaking away from the arctic shelf, stranding thousands. They can''t swim far enough to safety and drown. Look at a sattelite map and see how both polar caps are shrinking rapidly.

But, as a Canadian, we''ll take the warm weather and you can have Mexico''s climate. And the newly opened arctic passage which goes right through our waters.

Pay tolls, anyone?

[rrozsa-2009]

Posted by pythoncharly at 12:35 PM : Feb 13, 2009

=================

They are actually called "Canada Geese", not "Canadian Geese". Whatever they are, I sure wish we could get rid of some of them here in Central/Northern Alabama. Lots of them seem to have taken up permanent residence and are quite a nuisance on most of our corporate campuses! But since they are migratory birds, they are protected by law, so you must stop in the middle of the highway to let them walk across. And they pooh around the fountain and on the walkways. Yuck!

[smt451d]

Rev.Leslie Posey
The aircraft companys should track and install small
monitoring devices on flocks of birds
so that jets can be warned from a beeper they carry
the money they are looseing is far greater than the cost of this system,not to mention lives

Posted by leslieposey at 12:42 PM : Feb 13, 2009

You''d have jets flying all over the sky trying to avoid birds and hitting other jets instead. Doesn''t sound good to me.

[leslieposey-2009]

Rev.Leslie Posey
The aircraft companys should track and install small
monitoring devices on flocks of birds
so that jets can be warned from a beeper they carry
the money they are looseing is far greater than the cost of this system,not to mention lives

[nikosk11]

Thank the Powers Be, George W. Moron is not in power otherwise we would be invading Canada and arresting all their geese.

[pfness]

You might want to check out what is going on with our polar ice caps .....
EITHER OF THEM. While you are at it, you might want to revisit the 5th grade .... learn the difference
between the word "coarse" and the phrase "of course"
and learn how to spell "Canadian".

Posted by cbs3200
____________________________

What are you, the "word police".

[getoffmine1]

were the geese being fingered before or during the crash? If the pilot was doing the fingering that would explain alot as his hands would then not be on the controls where they belong

[cbs3200]

I''''''''m pretty sure that snow and ice still covers everything. Since global warming has been such a good topic I''''''''ve yet to see a winter not happen. Coarse I could be wrong are there any Canadiens in here that can confirm that they haven''''''''t seen a winter in awhile. Pretty sure that human presence and our trash is causing them not to fly further south if that is indeed happening. Its not like they are hanging out with the polar bears in the summer.
Posted by patocc at 09:14 AM :

You might want to check out what is going on with our polar ice caps .....
EITHER OF THEM. While you are at it, you might want to revisit the 5th grade .... learn the difference
between the word "coarse" and the phrase "of course"
and learn how to spell "Canadian".

[cbs3200]

Hey! Why not feed the homeless a nice roast goose and solve two problems at one time? Oh, yeah, we''''d have to listen to the PETA crazies, the vegans, and I''''m sure that there would be a "Save the Goose" movement somewhere. Canadian Geese are just oversize pigeons - useless!
Posted by DMorrisPE at 10:10 AM : Feb 13, 2009

Useless huh ... well YOU and these geese have something in common then ....

[mecury69]

The geese were not the ''culprits''. They were not ''responsible''. They are not to ''blame''.

The NTSB should not be determining how many geese hit the plane rather how many geese the plane hit.

The plane flying into a flock of migratory birds is to blame.

Hey, homosapiens...we are not alone on this planet.

[kaviz]

I say we round up the survibing geese, ship them off to Gitmo and waterboard them until we get to the bottem of this Goose Liberation Army.
What? We dont do that anymore? DAMM