Sea-Tac at forefront in ways to prevent bird-aircraft collisions

The hazard to commercial airplanes from birds striking windscreens or being sucked into jet engines will only increase as more planes take to the sky and the population of 10-pound bird species continues to grow, says the wildlife biologist for Seattle Tacoma International Airport.

The dramatic landing of a US Airways passenger jet in New York City's Hudson River on Thursday has focused attention on potentially catastrophic bird versus plane collisions, said Sea-Tac biologist Steve Osmek. US Air Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson after Canada geese apparently were sucked into its engines, disabling both. All 155 people aboard survived.

Experts have been working for years to mitigate such avian damage to aircraft by making airports as unattractive as possible to birds. When birds show up at Sea-Tac, Osmek and a crew of contractors scare them away with booming pyrotechnics, relocate them or, if they've grown accustomed to planes and humans, capture them for euthanasia.

"It's important that we do everything we can to keep wildlife away from planes," Osmek said. "It's in the birds' best interest."

On Friday, about a dozen members of the media were loaded on a shuttle bus for a tour of the airport's wildlife-mitigation projects. To discourage bird visits, Sea-Tac officials have covered a stormwater-detention pond with fencing so waterfowl can't land on it, shaded a wetland to stop algae from growing and producing a food source, and planted dense vegetation so large birds such as Canada geese can't land or take off.

Near the newly opened third runway, Osmek pointed out a humane trap that each year catches 1,000 to 3,000 starlings — nonnative birds that are then euthanized.

A contractor hired by the airport has relocated approximately 200 red-tail hawks and their young to a spot south of Bellingham in recent years. Only one has ever returned, Osmek said.

Aircraft-bird strikes up

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doesn't require airlines to report bird strikes, so it's hard to get a handle on national figures, Osmek said. Last year, there were reports of approximately 105 aircraft-bird strikes at Sea-Tac, up from 76 in 2007, but two-thirds happened somewhere en route to the airport, he said. Nationwide, about 7,400 bird strikes were reported, but real numbers are probably higher, he said.

More than 80 percent of bird strikes happen at 1,000 feet of elevation or less, said Osmek.

Of any species, Osmek said, gulls are most likely to strike planes while crows are the least likely. Flocks of crows have even been seen to change direction to avoid an aircraft. Crows and other "airport savvy" species don't pose nearly the hazard that migrating birds and young birds do, he said.

But larger birds are the most dangerous. Osmek said the populations of birds 8-10 pounds are growing, and heavier birds have a greater potential for causing damage.

Bird-tracking radars

Sea-Tac is the first airport in the country to continuously use avian radars to track birds in its air space. The radars were installed in March 2007 but the technology is still so new the information gathered can't be translated into meaningful information for pilots or air-traffic controllers, said Ed Herricks, a University of Illinois ecological-engineering professor.

Herricks is leading a team of graduate students in the FAA-funded radar experiment at Sea-Tac, which was chosen, he said, because of the age and sophistication of the airport's wildlife-management practices. A biologist has been on staff since the 1970s, and Osmek has an annual budget of $250,000 for wildlife mitigation.

"The radars provide us with information we can't get any other way. We're trying to build a picture of movement dynamics and get an idea of where birds are coming from," Herricks said. The information will ultimately be incorporated "into the decision-making systems for airports."

This summer, avian radars will be installed at airports in Chicago, New York City (JFK) and Dallas-Fort Worth, he said.

Herricks also studies avian radars at the U.S. Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island through a program funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The Navy, he said, is also interested in the problem posed by birds; it has lost two training planes to bird strikes in the past two years at a facility in Texas.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com