There Were More Than 227,000 Wildlife Strikes To Aircraft Between 1990 And 2019 In The US
As an instructor at the Brazilian Air Force Academy, Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonça was flying in formation when one of his colleagues experienced a bird strike to the leading edge of his aircraft’s right wing. It was a relatively minor incident — not nearly as dramatic as the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 landing on New York’s Hudson River following a bird strike in 2009 — but it got Mendonca wondering about ways to reduce wildlife collisions with aircraft. The problem of wildlife strikes to aircraft is huge and growing. According to a 2021 study, there were more than 227,000 wildlife strikes to aircraft between 1990 and 2019 in th