Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • March 23, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com has nearly doubled, peaking at 111 cases in 2012, according to a Hartford Business Jour- nal analysis of Federal Aviation Administra- tion data. By comparison, the highest number of incidents reported before 2005 was 61. Over the last five full years, an average of 90 inci- dents have been reported annually. Since 1990, the majority of Connecticut's wildlife-plane strikes have occurred at the state's busiest airport — Bradley International in Windsor Locks, which recorded 675 incidents — although shoreline airports like Tweed New Haven (224 strikes) and Groton-New London (247) have seen their fair share as well. In all, the state's airports recorded 1,459 wildlife-airplane collisions in the past 25 years, of which 98 percent were caused by birds, creat- ing potential public safety threats to airlines and their passengers. Globally, wildlife strikes killed more than 255 people and destroyed over 243 air- craft between 1988 and 2013, according to FAA. "If you digest a large enough bird into an engine that can have an impact on the aircraft," said Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Con- necticut Airport Authority. "Also, if a bird hits the windshield, those are the sensitive areas." Nationally, wildlife strikes are also on the rise, mainly due to growing populations of large birds and increased air traffic by quieter, turbofan-powered aircraft, FAA said. The most well-known example was the 2009 "Miracle on the Hudson" out of New York City's LaGuardia Airport, when a flock of Canadian geese were ingested by a Charlotte-bound air- craft carrying 155 passengers, forcing the pilots to safely crash land into the Hudson River. Connecticut has had its issues as well. Last April, an ExpressJet Airlines plane aborted a takeoff at Bradley after the pilot said he struck a bird 2,000 feet down a runway, according to FAA records. The pilot indicated the bird looked like a gull, but a body was not recovered. There was no damage to the plane. Dillon said a significant reason for the recent increase in Connecticut incidents is because airlines and airport personnel have gotten better about reporting bird strikes, which has been an FAA mandate. Still, the CAA is working to further miti- gate wildlife collisions, especially around Bradley, which had 5.9 million passengers arrive and depart last year. The biggest effort is to purchase 133 acres on the Farmington River in Windsor to cre- ate a new wildlife preserve that attracts more birds and keeps wildlife away from Bradley and its airplanes, Dillon said. The CAA expects to close on the $3.5 mil- lion purchase, using $1.4 million from its own budget and $2.1 million from the FAA, in April. CAA would then turn over the property to the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), which would modify the habitat and turn it into grasslands. CAA will pay $20,000 annually to maintain the property. The land will have public access, said Graham Stevens, DEEP's office director. The state is in discussions with the town of Wind- sor to have a linear trail on the property along the Farmington River. "It will not be a state park, and its primary purpose is the protection of the bird habitat," Stevens said. Mitigating risks Every U.S. airport must file a wildlife man- agement plan with the Federal Aviation Admin- istration, and each is different depending on where airfields are located, said FAA spokes- man Jim Peters. Airports along the coastline, for example, tend to deal more with birds while airports in the western U.S. and more remote areas have issues with larger mammals. Connecticut airports largely have to deal with bird strikes. Wildlife management plans focus on ways to keep animals away from airport facilities and airplanes; killing animals is a last resort, Peters said. At Bradley, CAA tries to eliminate animal habitats to keep wildlife away from airfields. For example, they plant trees that aren't con- ducive to nesting. Bradley also uses pyro- technics to scare away wandering birds. Rollin Tebbetts, Bradley's operations man- ager, roams the grounds with a starter pistol to jolt birds away from airplanes. "Birds will loaf around the airport, and we will have to go and disperse them," Tebbetts said. Not all defense tactics are effective, Dillon said. At John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City — where Dillon used to work — birds figured out that the cannons airport offi- cials used to scare away wildlife were useful perches when they weren't actively firing. "It is much more effective to fire off pyro- technics randomly," Dillon said. Tebbetts said Bradley is largely fortunate because it doesn't have the volume of birds that coastal airports have, and the species in Wind- sor Locks tend to be smaller than the seagulls or Canadian geese that cause problems in New York City. Tebbetts estimates dealing with wildlife occupies 5-10 percent of his time; migrating sea- sons during the spring and fall are the busiest. breaking down the numbers Bird-on-plane strikes aren't just limited to what happens on Bradley grounds. The majority of the reported incidents to FAA occur when airplanes are in flight, and Bradley happens to be the nearest airport to the bird strike. The most common species struck in Connecticut are small birds like sparrows, although gulls and geese are struck as well, particularly around the shoreline. In May 2013, a pilot flying out of Hartford- Brainard Airport reported hitting a bald eagle, leaving a fist-sized dent in the plane's wing, according to FAA records. That was the only incident of a Connecticut plane strik- ing that federally protected bird. Mammals cause problems at airports, not so much with planes in flight but on runways. Bats, deer, skunks, and other mammals have been responsible for about three dozen incidents at Connecticut airports since 1990, said FAA. In September 2012, for example, a medi- cal transport flight departing from Tweed New Haven Airport hit a white-tailed deer, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff. The pilot reported millions of dollars in damage to the right wing and main landing gear, FAA records show. Removing mammals from airports isn't as simple as firing off pyrotechnics, Tebbetts said. The CAA has to work with DEEP and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on its animal management plan. If an animal is a repeated problem, CAA officials can track and trap it; killing is the last resort. Mammal strikes in Connecticut are less common, but Bradley officials still have to chase away foxes, skunks, and rabbits from the Windsor Locks airport, Tebbetts said. Deer aren't an issue at Bradley. When animals do strike airplanes and the body is recovered, airport officials will send the DNA to the Smithsonian Institution in Washing- ton, D.C., which can determine its species. Know- ing the species helps CAA officials create habi- tats that are unfriendly to that particular animal. JFK in New York has a bird problem because it has a landfill only a few miles away. "We make sure placement of facilities around or near [Bradley] Airport is appro- priate," Dillon said. n from page 1 Wildlife/Airport Collisions Breakdown Since 1990 Airport Collisions Bradley Intl. 675 Groton-New London Arpt. 247 Tweed-New Haven Arpt. 224 Danbury Municipal Arpt. 110 Igor I Sikorsky Memorial 104 Hartford-Brainard Arpt. 53 Waterbury-Oxford Arpt. 20 Robertson Field 7 Chester Arpt. 2 Windham Arpt. 2 Canterbury Farm Arpt. 1 Goodspeed 1 Meriden Markham Municipal Arpt. 1 S O u r c e : f e d e r a L a v I a T I O n a d M I n I S T r a T I O n Type of Wildlife Involved in Plane Collisions Since 1990 Number of Species Incidents Unknown bird — small 208 Gulls 162 Unknown bird — medium 146 Horned lark 87 Herring gull 87 Canada goose 78 Sparrows 77 Mourning dove 63 Barn swallow 52 American kestrel 44 European starling 40 Rock pigeon 29 Tree swallow 26 Bank swallow 24 Killdeer 23 White-tailed deer 18 Swallows 16 Snow bunting 16 S O u r c e : f e d e r a L a v I a T I O n a d M I n I S T r a T I O n Bradley buying wildlife preserve 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 CT Wildlife/Airplane Collisions The following data shows how many wildlife/airplane collisions have been reported at Connecticut airports since 1990. * 2 0 1 4 n u M b e r O n L y c O n T a I n S c O L L I S I O n S r e P O r T e d f r O M J a n u a r y - a u g u S T S O u r c e : f e d e r a L a v I a T I O n a d M I n I S T r a T I O n Collisions '90 '91 '92 '93 '94 '95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14* Year Rollin Tebbetts, Bradley's operations manager, said he spends up to 10 per- cent of his time roaming the Windsor Locks air- port's grounds to make sure wildlife don't inter- fere with planes on the runway. Bradley uses pyrotechnics as one tech- nique to scare away birds and other animals. P H O T O | S T e v e L a S c H e v e r

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