Birds flying into plane engines is a relatively rare but serious occurrence in aviation. When it does happen, the results can range from no damage to the plane having to make an emergency landing. Understanding the factors that lead to bird strikes and the safety measures in place can help put this risk in perspective.
Quick Answers
– Yes, there have been many instances of birds getting struck by plane engines throughout aviation history. This is known as a “bird strike”.
– Bird strikes happen most often during takeoff and landing when planes are flying at low altitudes. The birds get sucked into the engines and can cause serious damage.
– While rare, bird strikes have caused engine failure and emergency landings. There have been cases of planes having to ditch at sea after losing engine power from bird strikes.
– Modern jet engines are designed to withstand and contain some bird strikes. But multiple strikes or larger birds can still cause dangerous situations.
– Aircraft manufacturers, engine makers, and airports use several techniques to prevent bird strikes such as aircraft design, bird patrols, habitat management, and noise cannons.
What Exactly is a Bird Strike?
A bird strike occurs when a bird collides with an aircraft, either in flight or while the plane is on the ground. The vast majority of bird strikes involve commercial aircraft and around 97% occur during takeoff, landing and associated phases of flight. Approximately 3% happen during the enroute climb, cruise and descent phases of flight.
Bird strikes most often involve large flocks of birds such as gulls, waterfowl, raptors, and pigeons/doves. The strikes can happen anywhere on the aircraft but are most dangerous when ingested into the engines. Birds are most often struck on the windshield and nose. Other common areas of strikes include the wings, engines, wheel wells, and tail.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimated that there were 13,795 bird and wildlife strikes with civil aircraft in the U.S. in 2013. However, the number may be significantly higher as reporting of strikes is voluntary. Around 5-10% of strikes result in aircraft damage.
Historical Bird Strike Examples
There is a long history of birds striking aircraft and causing accidents. Here are some notable examples:
- In 1960, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-188 Electra had multiple bird strikes on its engines and crashed into Boston Harbor, killing 62 people.
- In 1995, an AWACS military surveillance plane crashed on takeoff in Alaska after ingesting Canada geese into all four engines, killing all 24 crew.
- In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing on the Hudson River after Canada geese knocked out both engines. All 155 people on board survived.
- In 2021, a US Air Force E-11A surveillance jet crashed in Afghanistan after striking a flock of birds, killing both crew members.
These incidents show that bird strikes have always posed a safety risk to aviation. Engine failures, damaged flight controls, and obscured windshields can all result from collisions with birds.
What Happens When Birds Hit Plane Engines?
When birds get ingested into aircraft engines several things can happen:
- The engine blades and other internal components suffer damage as they impact the birds at high speed.
- Remains from the birds get trapped in the engine core which causes a loss of power.
- The sudden impact causes engine surges or compressor stalls.
- The engine can catch fire due to released fuel igniting.
The amount of damage depends on the size and number of birds and what point in the flight it occurs. Small birds like sparrows rarely cause serious issues. But large birds like geese can destroy an engine if struck during low altitudes.
Multiple bird strikes increase the risk as they can take out multiple engines. Loss of even one engine can require an emergency landing, especially if it happens right after takeoff.
Are Modern Jet Engines Designed to Resist Bird Strikes?
Aircraft and engine manufacturers have made tremendous advances in designing equipment to withstand bird strikes. Here are some of the features that help prevent catastrophic engine failure:
- High bypass turbofan engines used on most airliners are less vulnerable than older engines.
- Blades are made from durable materials like titanium and nickel alloys.
- Engines have armored casings to contain broken blades and other debris.
- Critical components are reinforced to resist disintegration.
- Engines can withstand ingesting remains from a 6-8 lb bird, required for certification.
- Aircraft hydraulic and electrical lines are routed to avoid damage.
Despite all the mitigation measures, engines can still be severely damaged or fail entirely after striking a 10+ lb bird or several smaller ones at once. But modern aviation safety practices have greatly reduced the risks over the past decades.
How are Airports and Planes Designed to Prevent Bird Strikes?
Aircraft manufacturers and airports use a variety of techniques to scare birds away from runways and reduce the chances of collisions:
- Strategic habitat management around airports including removing trees, grassy areas, water, and food sources attractive to birds.
- Radar systems to detect flocks of birds near the airport.
- Trained bird patrols that continuously scare away birds using pyrotechnics, distress calls, air cannons, and other methods.
- Aircraft wing and engine designs that minimize perching or nesting spots.
- Cockpit window panes angled to reduce reflection of sky and ground.
- Noxious grass species planted around runways that irritate bird feet.
- Drainage ditches around airports have steep sides to deter birds.
Adhering strictly to these kinds of exclusion and harassment techniques can greatly reduce the presence of birds near airports. However, determined flocks can still gain access and end up in the path of aircraft.
Are Bird Strikes Increasing?
Bird and other wildlife strikes have been steadily increasing in the last 30 years. From 1990 to 2018, the FAA documented a 7-fold increase in the number of reported bird and other wildlife strikes. Here are some of the factors behind the increase:
- Growing number of commercial flights and larger aircraft.
- Population increases in problem bird species like Canada geese, gulls, and raptors.
- Better reporting of strikes to databases like the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database.
- Increased bird activity and habitats near airports due to changing land use and climate.
The rise underscores the need for continued vigilance and improvements in technology and techniques to mitigate strikes. Areas like improved engine designs, expanded radar detection, genome sequencing of consumed birds, and enhanced airport perimeter monitoring and exclusion can all help reverse the upward trend in strikes.
Year | Reported Bird Strikes in U.S. |
---|---|
1990 | 1,758 |
2000 | 4,721 |
2010 | 9,814 |
2018 | 14,661 |
What is the Annual Cost of Bird Strikes?
Bird and other wildlife collisions impose significant costs on the aviation industry each year. The FAA estimates that bird strikes cost the U.S. civil aviation sector over $1.2 billion per year in damages and lost revenue. Globally, the figure is estimated to be well over $5 billion when military damages are included.
The costs mostly consist of:
- Aircraft repairs from structure and engine damage.
- Post-strike engine inspections and replacements.
- Aircraft retrieval, aborted flights, and delays.
- Increased fuel consumption from climbing and diversion.
- Aircraft groundings and time out of service.
- Passenger delays and accommodations.
- Crew overtime and reassignment.
While not every strike causes damage, the sheer number of collisions makes birds an expensive issue for airlines and airports. Non-lethal impacts can still incur thousands in costs for precautionary engine inspections.
Do Bird Strikes Cause Crash Fatalities?
Bird strikes have directly resulted in the deaths of over 250 people worldwide since 1988. Some of the accidents with fatalities caused by birds include:
- 1988 in Bahrain – A Boeing 737 crashed after engine failure from bird ingestion, killing 36.
- 1995 in Alaska – An E-3 AWACS struck geese causing a crash that killed all 24 on board.
- 1996 in the Netherlands – A Boeing 757 ingested birds into both engines, forcing a crash landing that killed 2 of 90.
- 2012 in Nepal – A Dornier 228 collided with a vulture and crashed, killing 19 of 21 people.
Given the rarity of catastrophic bird strike situations, the number of directly related fatalities is still quite low. Pre-impact emergency maneuvers, engine redundancies, and other safety features help avert disaster in many cases. Still, the threat to life and the problem for aviation is very real and taken extremely seriously.
What are Some Notable Bird Strike Incidents?
While crashes with fatalities are fortunately uncommon, severe or unique bird strike events still happen fairly regularly each year. Here are some other notable bird collision incidents from recent history:
- 1995 – A Concorde supersonic airliner crashed and caught fire after hitting geese on takeoff from Paris, killing 109 people. Engines ingesting birds was ruled as the primary cause.
- 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” after ditching safely in NYC’s Hudson River following total engine failure from multiple geese strikes right after takeoff.
- 2014 – F-15E fighter jet crashed into the sea after being hit by a vulture off the coast of Virginia, prompting an 11-day, multi-agency search and rescue. The pilot was rescued but the weapons officer drowned.
- 2016 – American Airlines Flight 1502 aborted takeoff from Chicago O’Hare after its engine ingested a flock of sparrows, causing it to catch fire. All passengers and crew evacuated without injury.
- 2016 – Emirates Flight 521 crash landed and caught fire in Dubai after two engine failures from ingesting birds shortly after takeoff. All passengers survived but a firefighter on the ground died.
These events highlight that bird strikes remain an omnipresent issue in aviation needing constant vigilance and safety preparedness. Accidents may be rare but when they do occur can endanger many lives and result in massive costs.
Are Bird Strikes Inevitable?
Due to the immense volume of birds near airports and migratory flight patterns, completely eliminating the risk of bird strikes is next to impossible. However, continuing advances in technology and wildlife management practices can help reduce the frequency and severity of strikes.
Some ways the aviation industry is working to lessen the inevitability of strikes include:
- NextGen flight route planning to avoid known bird activity hotspots.
- Increasing use of bird radar detection and real-time alerts.
- Improved bird dispersal tactics using drones and other methods.
- Genome sequencing of bird remains to pinpoint problematic species.
- Engine design breakthroughs including 3D airflow modulation.
- Remote engine inspections using boroscopes to assess damage.
With sustained research, planning, and investment in countermeasures, the constant threat can be managed to an acceptable level of safety and cost.
Conclusion
Bird strikes on aircraft will likely continue to occur as long as birds and planes share the same airspace. Engine failures, costly repairs, schedule disruptions, and safety risks will remain an issue requiring attention and resources to mitigate. But continued evolution of technology, infrastructure, regulations, and best practices can help manage the problem and steadily reduce risks in the long run.
Through awareness, reporting, research, and preparedness, the aviation industry is working hard to ensure that the miracle of modern air transportation remains just that in face of the enduring threat posed by our fine feathered friends.