Bird strikes like the one that caused yesterday’s US Airways crash-landing are a constant threat at New York’s airports, despite Port Authority efforts to separate human and avian fliers.
Birds the size of adult Canada geese, which can weigh from 4 ½ to 12 pounds, can quickly disable the biggest, most well-built jet engines.
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“There isn’t an engine that’s designed to take a goose through it,” said Steve Garber, a biologist who once headed the PA anti-bird-strike program.
Geese on Rikers Island threaten planes at La Guardia, Garber said, and JFK Airport is near a giant wildlife refuge. The PA has battled JFK’s bird problems by using falcons to scare off seagulls, and setting up noisemaking cannons, but the threat has never been eradicated.
“A 2-pound bird can destroy the internal mechanism of a gas-turbine engine so that you’re unable to restart it,” said Robert Spragg, an attorney with the Manhattan firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which specializes in aviation law.
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