Philadelphia airport efforts minimize bird damage

The world was alerted to the dangers that birds pose to aircraft when geese crippled both engines of a US Airways jet that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in January.

But wildlife experts have known for years about the rising hazard of bird strikes and have worked to minimize risks.

Airports, with open fields and grass, are particularly vulnerable to birds. Many of the nation's busiest airports are next to rivers, bays, oceans, marshes, swamps, or wildlife sanctuaries that attract birds.

Philadelphia International is surrounded by two rivers, several hundred acres of freshwater tidal marsh, and the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

Planes taking off and landing often cross the Delaware River. Each spring and fall, airports on the East Coast are within the Atlantic Flyway, the travel corridor of thousands of migrating birds.

"I've flown into Philadelphia many times, and I look out the window and watch the gulls moving up and down that river," said Russell DeFusco, a bird-strike consultant who ran the U.S. Air Force bird-aircraft strike-hazard team in the 1990s. "You just keep your fingers crossed and hope you don't smack one."

The Philadelphia airport works aggressively day and night to keep birds away. A 35-person staff monitors the airfield 24 hours, searching for roosting birds and other wildlife to shoo away.

Two biologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services work full time at the airport. Senior biologist Albert Polillo and wildlife technician Jennifer Dzimiela patrol the 2,400 acres daily, inspecting fences and keeping birds and other wildlife off runways.

They also monitor for birds within a five-mile radius. "Any wildlife we see in the vicinity, we'll harass them," Polillo said.

They use sound as a deterrent - sirens and pyrotechnic devices that when fired make loud, annoying sounds. They even occasionally shoot problem birds. And they addle eggs or remove nests to prevent the hatching of nuisance nonmigrating Canada geese.

At the 1,000-acre Heinz refuge, across I-95 and Route 291, manager Gary M. Stolz and his staff maintain a habitat for hundreds of birds and other wildlife.

"We work together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service folks," Stolz said. "We have meetings. We talk a lot."

The refuge, like the airport, has control measures to reduce the nonmigrating resident Canada goose population, which can overgraze the habitat and which are aggressive toward fish, waterfowl, and other birds.

Workers remove goose eggs from nests, dip them in vegetable oil to prevent hatching, then return them. A goose missing eggs will lay new ones.

The reporting of collisions between aircraft and birds has risen dramatically since the Federal Aviation Administration began tracking bird strikes. In 1990, there were 2,051 bird strikes reported by airliners at commercial airports. In 2007, there were 9,631.

The Agriculture Department estimates only 20 percent of bird strikes are reported.

With the banning of pesticides, including DDT, environmental improvements to clean up rivers and pollution, and conservation measures including stricter hunting regulations, some bird species have proliferated.

"There are more birds, especially large birds, and birds that are willing to tolerate people, like gulls," said DeFusco, who serves on the steering committee of Bird Strike Committee USA, which collects data on bird strikes.

With more birds and more airplanes, "it's inevitable that we are hitting more," he said.

Philadelphia airport has not had a large increase in birds on its property because of aggressive habitat management - removing trees and brush and keeping grass eight to 10 inches high. If grass is too low, birds can see bugs and worms. If grass is too tall, small mammals such as rabbits can hide in it, said Keith Brune, director of operations.

Philadelphia airport has had a "gradual increase" in bird strikes - seven so far this year. Polillo attributes that to increased reporting. Airlines now insist that pilots and employees file strike reports, "whereas in the past that would have been a nuisance," he said.

Bird strikes can occur miles from airports or on takeoff or landing. Strikes can be reported to the airport where the plane took off or where it landed.

In 2008, Philadelphia International reported fewer than 70 bird strikes, although the final FAA tally is not in.

In 2007, there were 69 reported bird strikes at Philadelphia; six were classified as damaging out of 502,000 flights.

Between 2003 and 2007, the airport reported an average of 57 wildlife strikes a year. Five of those each year were considered damaging out of 490,000 takeoffs and landings.

Philadelphia airport has never had a fatality or lost an aircraft because of a bird strike.

Bird-plane collisions average about 20 a day around the United States. "The vast majority of bird strikes are not damaging," DeFusco said. But occasionally the results are life-threatening and catastrophic.

More than 220 people worldwide have been killed in airplane crashes caused by bird strikes since 1988, Bird Strike Committee USA says.

Planes have been hitting birds since soon after the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903. The earliest known fatal crash involving a bird was in 1912, when a plane struck a gull and crashed into the surf in Long Beach, Calif.

The deadliest crash was in 1960, when 62 people died after an Eastern Airlines flight collided with a flock of European starlings shortly after takeoff and plunged into Boston Harbor.

"Habitat management is absolutely the key to keeping birds off the airport," DeFusco said. "Philadelphia International has a fairly aggressive program. Having two biologists hired to do the work is exceptional. It's very common for airports to stop their concern at their fence line. I've got to commend Philadelphia for working with John Heinz Refuge on this issue."