Companies Disagree On Technology

There's an old saying in aviation that "a bird in the prop will cause the airplane to stop."  Bird strikes have always been a cause for concern in the aviation industry, and one of the topics scheduled to be reviewed at this week's NTSB hearing on US Airways Flight 1549 is developments in technologies such as radar for bird tracking at airports.

Industry reports progress with avian radar has been significant. The FAA chose a Canadian Company’s Accipiter Avian Radar for initial assessment of commercially available bird radar systems. Dr. Tim J. Nohara, President of Accipiter Radar explains “avian radar can help mitigate bird hazards where they are most likely to occur around the airport. Realtime monitoring and alerting of approaching flocks of birds helps wildlife control personnel better manage bird hazards.”

In the case of Flight 1549 Dr. Nohara maintains “the accident was unusual, happening at 2800 feet altitude and at quite a distance beyond the airport. While the coverage versus accuracy trade-off associated with today’s avian radars would have been limiting for the 1549 accident, new antennas under development ... will soon provide improved 3D bird localization accuracy to facilitate a warning to pilots even in this case.”

But a second company, called DeTect and based in Florida, has also called on the FAA to deploy avian radar at airports around the country in light of this week's NTSB hearings, and says no more study is needed. Gary W. Andrews, CEO of DeTect, said in a statement "Our military already uses the technology, NASA uses bird radars, it is time to let our commercial airports use the systems. Ongoing statements by the FAA ... that bird radars are not ready for operational use, will take years more research and could not have prevented the US Airways birdstrike related crash, simply are not correct. Bird radars currently operating regularly detect and track flocks of geese at ranges far beyond the 3 miles distance and 2800 feet altitude as was the flock that brought down flight 1549. These systems are already being used operationally to provide risk advisories to controllers and pilots."

Obviously, both of these companies would like to sell bird detection equipment on a government contract. The NTSB hearing the week will focus on a variety of issues relating to US Airways 1549. ANN reported Tuesday that DNA testing showed that the geese that caused the crash were migratory, which experts say require more elaborate techniques in order to monitor bird movements.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.accipiterradar.com, www.detect-inc.com/