Birds vs. Planes: What Should the Airline Industry Do?

Ever since Captain Chesley Sullenberger's plane struck a flock of geese and ditched in the Hudson River last January, aeronautic experts have stepped up debates about how to avoid such mid-air collisions. Often the bird that gets blamed is a goose or a raptor inadvertently sucked into a plane's engine. But groups of smaller birds can pose a significant risk too, as has been the case recently at the Vancouver International Airport, where flocks of flying dunlins are competing for air space. The Vancouver Sun reports that dunlins have died by the dozens on the airport's runways in at least three air strikes this month.

And this is just the beginning of the airport's busy winter season for birds. Well known for their dramatic aeronautic pirouettes and flashy synchronized turns, dunlins are arriving to spend the winter in the region's Fraser delta, one of the continent's most popular rest stops for avian migrants and those who like to watch them. The task of keeping birds from bumping into planes often falls on the shoulders of wildlife experts who employ all manner of noise makers and scary devices—from guns and fireworks to predatory falcons—to keep wandering birds off the tarmac and out of a plane's flight path. But harassing and sometimes killing birds can be controversial. Bringing us to the question: What do you think the airline industry should do to minimize bird-plane collisions?