The Perils of Bird-Plane Collisions
When airlines want to investigate dangerous bird strikes against planes, they turn to Carla Dove, head of the Smithsonian’s Feather Identification Lab
- By Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian.com, January 16, 2009
A US Air Force Boeing 707 disturbs a colony of sooty terns during takeoff. © Peter Johnson / Corbis
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UPDATED: February 5, 2009
When US Airways Flight 1549 crash landed into the Hudson River in January, the plane suffered a “double bird strike,” according to audio tapes released by the FAA, forcing the pilot to glide the aircraft to safety. When a bird strikes a plane, identifying the species can provide valuable information. We spoke with Carla Dove, who heads up the Feather Identification Lab at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which has long had that important identification job.
When last the magazine last spoke with you, in 2004, you were working on a database of bird DNA. What is the status of that project?
That project was completed in 2006, and it was collaboration between the University of Guelph and the Smithsonian. [The goal of] that project was to barcode—take a little DNA snippet—of all of the birds of North America, 800 species or so. We completed that project using frozen bird tissue samples that we have here in our collection and that we borrowed from other museums. Now we have a known reference library for the bird species that occur in North America.
What will be the use of all that information?
We can take the pieces of snarge and the blood and tissue and everything that comes off of an aircraft after a bird strike and try to obtain DNA from that unknown sample. And once we do get a DNA sequence from that unknown sample, we now have a reference source to match up the unknown sample to. We can get a DNA match from some of these bird strikes that have very little material, that lack the feathers and whole feather material [that would more easily identify the species].
What advantage do you get from knowing the species of bird that hit a plane?
Related topics: Birds DNA Planes
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Comments (15)
Hi Ann,
That would be a good solution but unfortunately the engine has to be so aerodynamically perfect that any sort of grill over the engine would send in plummeting.
Posted by alan cook on April 19,2010 | 05:16 PM
I remember when I was a child in the late 30's and early 40's, normal bird populations were massive. I grew up in Kansas and during migration seasons, huge flights of all kinds of birds poured across the skies, for hours, and sometimes days, headed north or south, depending on the time of year. The bird populations are not so much growing today, but rather barely beginning to return to normal. Thank God they are being fed, in one way or another, or they would soon all be extinct, followed not long thereafter, by mankind. Meanwhile, we should just keep plugging away at discovering means of solving the bird/aircraft problem.
Posted by Larry Jackson on February 23,2009 | 08:10 AM
I'm doing an essay on this article for my college english class, some cool things I learned. They are working with Light and sound to warn birds of on comming traffic, Cant have a grill because if leaves, a jacket or something else covers it, planes engines could die mid flight, and NASA keeps a registery of these reports to study how to do better. This has actually been an ongoing study for years, it's just an unfortunate event happed. From a pilot's wife, Good job to that pilot who had to go down, he made all the right decisions and kept people safe.
Posted by Granolagirl in Alaska on February 1,2009 | 08:55 PM
I always tell myself I won't bother adding my two cents, but ... increasingly reckless bird population? I can't tell if this was intentionally or unintentionally humorous.
Posted by Anpo Wi on January 25,2009 | 07:59 PM
Out in the Pacific Ocean, on the Island of Midway, the Naval Air Station had a problem with Gooney Birds. The remedy was the have an armed crew to ride out to the end of the runway and most of the time- shoot into the air and scare the Gooney birds away from the end of the air strip,just before the planes took off. So why couldn't you use a high pressure air cannon to blast sound just before take off of an airline. It would not be any worse than a sonic boom.
Posted by archie m. hyde on January 25,2009 | 06:33 PM
Sara what you seem to prfer to call a plane crash,was actually a forced landing.
Posted by David Dimech on January 24,2009 | 09:13 PM
What special measures are taken to avoid collisions with birds for Air Force One? I would think there would extra care to prevent such a problem with AFO.
Posted by Susan F. Godwin on January 24,2009 | 05:10 PM
Re: It’s very hard to say. I can tell you there has been a definite increase in the awareness and reporting. When I started working [on this], we would get 300 strikes per year to identify. And now, this past year, we got 4000 strikes. It’s not really that bird strikes are happening more often, it’s that people are now reporting them more frequently and they are aware that if we can determine the species of bird involved, they can do something to prevent the damage from happening. Because of the increased education and awareness and reporting, the bird strike caseload has increased. BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE AIRLINE PASSENGERS THAT ARE IN PERIL BECAUSE OF THE BURGEONING AND INCREASINGLY RECKLESS BIRD POPULATION? DOESN'T THAT MATTER? OR SHOULD WE JUST GO BACK TO BUSES, TRAINS, AUTOS OR MAYBE ....... THE HORSE? UNFORTUNATELY, THE ARTICLE SAYS NOTHING.
Posted by MARie ciliberti on January 24,2009 | 02:44 PM
You neglected to mention that the feather lab originated with Roxie ??? (Her married name was Simpson when she and I were students At GWU.) She and her students were doing this by feather characteristics and the procedure was fast, very accurate and extremely valuable for years befure DNA samples were possible.
Posted by jack downs on January 24,2009 | 02:30 PM
Why cannot jet engines be made of a material (lightweight, of course) that is strong enough to simply chop up the bird and spit it out the other side? After all, there are food processors that do that kind of work on a much smaller scale. What am I not seeing?
Posted by Beverly Hart on January 24,2009 | 01:47 PM
Partly the reason migortary birds are multiplying people insist on feeding them, it is against the law, they either do not know or care. But do not say we need more money to control it, education is the problem.These people call themselves animal lovers need I say any more. Doctor of Chemistry A. MacDonald has program of feeding Canada Geese where the eggs laid are infertile. Federal and State depatments; which are many; have made nign impossible to get past these bureaucrats.
Posted by Charles M. Adams on January 24,2009 | 01:24 PM
I believe we have this backwards. It is the plane striking the birds. These planes are flying so fast the birds don’t have enough time to get out of the way. Birds don’t fly towards planes because they are scared of a noisy big plane.
Posted by Frank C Watts on January 24,2009 | 01:08 PM
Recorded sounds of natural predators and other electronic methods are used in organic farming as a repellant to protect fruit trees and other crops, why not to protect the birds...don't they have inalienable rights to the sky???
Posted by C. Lee on January 24,2009 | 01:07 PM
Can someone please tell me why the planes don't have some sort of grill over the air intake to prevent birds from being sucked into the engines?
Posted by Ann on January 24,2009 | 12:28 PM