Nearly 200 Turtles Have Been Struck By Airplanes Since 1990, No UAVs In The U.S.

In a report meant to be humorous and yet point out that the federal government may be over-reacting to the potential for accidents involving UAVs, a researcher dug into the FAA's Wildlife Strike Database and found that there have been 198 confirmed turtle strikes by airplanes between January 1, 1990 and July 31, 2015.

That compares to 0 confirmed collisions between airplanes and UAVs, though the reports of near-collisions and other incidents has been rising sharply.

The researcher is Eli Dourado. "I picked turtles because turtles are funny," Mashable reports he told the magazine Popular Science. He said that given the disparity between collisions with turtles and UAVs, "maybe we're worrying too much about collisions with drones."

Still, it is obvious that turtles have been around a LOT longer than UAVs. And while it is pretty much a given that a turtle would not collide with an airplane while in flight (though we've heard of stranger things), UAVs sharing airspace with manned aircraft make a collision between those aircraft a much more likely scenario. And the results would likely be far worse.

We report this story only to point out that comparisons can be made for anything ... and in this case, comparing UAVs to turtles is a bit like comparing apples to a barbeque grill. No matter what you fly. Be sure to fly safely.

FMI: http://wildlife.faa.gov