Proposal to Protect the Data Will be Withdrawn

In response to severe public disapproval, the FAA has bowed to the inevitable and will make its entire Bird Strike database available on a public website this Friday, April 24. Portions of the database have been publicly available since the information was first collected in 1990, but the public will now be able to access all of the database's fields.

The FAA is also withdrawing a proposal to protect the data, after a 30-day comment period closed earlier this week. The FAA has determined that it can release the data without jeopardizing aviation safety (although their rationale for withholding it for such reasons was highly questionable).

The FAA has redacted a very small amount of data in the database containing privacy information, such as personal phone numbers.

Over the next four months, the FAA will make significant improvements to the database to improve the search function and make it more user-friendly. In its current format, users will only be able to perform limited searches online, but will be able to download the entire database.

The FAA also plans to work with the aviation community to find ways to improve and strengthen bird strike reporting.

FMI: http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/temp.html#access