Methods To Deter Wildlife Range From Dogs To Decoys

US Airways Flight 1549 has put the media spotlight on a long-recognized problem among the pilot community. Bird strikes can happen anywhere, and at nearly any altitude... though they're especially prevalent while flying near coastal or wooded locales.

Southwest Florida is known for its good year-round weather and abundance of wetlands, a combination that makes an excellent habitat for birds of many kinds. But as has been recently demonstrated in dramatic fashion, birds and airplanes don't mix well, something area airports routinely take precautions to help prevent.

Naples Municipal Airport (APF) Executive Director Ted Soliday said, "Birds are not something good for the airport, so we chase them away." The airport staff employs a combination of pyrotechnics, noise makers, whistles, sirens, firecrackers, vehicle horns, snake decoys and arm waving to scare them off.

Soliday said when their "conventional" methods don't work, the airport uses a "take permit," a license to kill the birds - but only in worst-case scenarios. Birds frequently seen in the area include migrant birds and wading birds such as egrets and ibis, he said.

In the airport's history, Soliday said there have been bird strikes, but could not recall a catastrophic strike that robbed a plane of all power. Birds are more likely to be encountered while flying over the nearby Everglades, he added.

Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) uses many of the same methods to discourage the presence of birds that are employed at Naples, with one notable exception -- a Border collie named Sky, a third-generation patrol dog.

In fact, RSW was the first commercial airport in the US to make use of a dog to assist in a Wildlife Management Program, according to the Naples Daily News. Sky herds and chases birds to discourage nesting and roosting on airport property, airport spokeswoman Victoria Moreland said.

RSW's methods seem reasonably successful, thanks in part to Sky. Moreland said the airport logged 89,308 operations last year, with only 20 bird strikes reported, and none of them resulted in major aircraft damage.

According to Federal Aviation Administration statistics, wildlife strikes have killed more than 219 people and resulted in the destruction of more than 2,000 aircraft worldwide since 1988. In 2007 alone, the FAA logged 7,666 wildlife strikes in the United States, and about 97 percent of them were bird strikes.

FMI: http://flynaples.com, www.swfia.com, www.faa.gov