- I think I see the chick in the nest.
- [Narrator] This is Laura Francoeur.
She's the chief wildlife biologist
for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
She's been managing wildlife at airports
for over 20 years.
- And it's made a nest in the light pole up there.
- [Narrator] Here at New York's
John F. Kennedy's International Airport,
she says birds are the wildlife group
most frequently struck by aircrafts.
- We're located right on Jamaica Bay.
There's a lot of water resources around us
and that's very attractive to bird populations,
especially shore birds and waterfowl.
- [Narrator] And if these animals find their way
onto the runway, it could create a problem
for aircrafts taking off and landing.
So Francoeur is here to explain
why wildlife strikes can be dangerous,
how to mitigate them
and what steps are taken after a collision
to make sure your fight lands safely.
(lively music)
- A strike occurs when there's been wildlife
that strikes an aircraft
and that's been witnessed by someone,
whether that's a pilot, airline crew
or someone on the ground
or if there's damage to the aircraft
or if there is a carcass of wildlife
that's found on the ground in the runway environment.
- [Narrator] On average, 47 strikes are reported daily,
and in 2020, 94% of them involved birds.
Most wildlife strikes
are gonna occur during departure or arrival.
And the reason for that is they're sort
of in a low flight phase.
So the aircraft are lower to the ground
so they're more likely to strike wildlife.
- [Narrator] Francoeur says most strikes don't result
in any damage to the aircraft
and the ones that do range in severity.
- It could be the light on the landing gear is broken.
So it could be very minor
or it could be much more serious,
such as an engine ingestion
and they have to replace an entire engine.
Or the radome on the aircraft,
which is sort of in the nose of an aircraft
and there's a lot of very expensive avionics components
that are in there.
- [Narrator] Repairing these types of damages isn't cheap.
In 2020, for example, the cost of wildlife strikes
to the US civil aviation industry
was projected to be $124 million
and at least 75,000 hours of aircraft downtime.
- A little delay in New York,
like a 15-minute delay
can cause a ripple across the whole air traffic system
and we're aware of that.
So that's our goal is to try and keep everything moving
and as safe as possible.
- [Narrator] Airports are on especially high alert
for strikes in the late summer and fall
because of bird migrations.
- It's not just the movement of the birds,
which you get in the spring migration also
but the fact that now you're getting naive birds
that are flying for the first time.
They've just fledged that summer.
- [Narrator] During this time,
there could be a strike every day
or even multiple strikes a day.
(pensive music)
- Everything's looking for food, cover and water.
And so that's your first goal
is to eliminate or reduce the food
and cover and water that's available in the airport.
And so habitat management
is your go-to first stop for that.
And it's the best long-term strategy
that you can use for managing wildlife on an airport.
- [Narrator] One example of habitat management,
cutting grass to a specific height.
- If you have grass that's too short,
there's a lot of birds that like open areas
so that they can see the predators around them.
So you will attract those species.
And then if you have the grass height too tall
or when it's more unmanaged,
you might get a lot of small mammals,
rabbits and other kind of medium-sized mammals
that are actually hiding in the grass.
And that potentially can attract larger raptors, hawks.
- [Narrator] This is an anti-perching device,
another form of habitat management.
- And you can see that it has a pointy cap on that.
We worked with different shapes.
This was the winner here.
And actually, no birds perch on those anymore.
- [Narrator] Wildlife management staff
also patrol the airfield every day,
looking for holes underneath fences
where wildlife can get through,
nests on airport structures
and ponding if there's been heavy rain or snow.
- We're managing everything from insects,
spraying, pesticides and making sure
that we're not having wildlife such as raccoons,
possums, starlings, pigeons attracted to dumpsters.
- [Narrator] And sometimes, they'll use tools like this
(gun shooting)
to disperse birds from the runway.
- Pyrotechnics is one of the most common ones.
(gun shooting) (whistling sound)
It provides both a visual
and an auditory component
that will scare wildlife off the airport.
(car hooting)
Even simple things like honking the horn on our vehicle
or just driving with the vehicle
will flush a lot of birds right off the airport.
- [Narrator] Traps are also set up around the airfield
to catch starlings and pigeons,
which in addition to being hazards to aircraft,
can also draw in raptors and other birds
as a prey source.
They'll go after the bait that's up here.
They think that there might be more bait down below,
and so they'll drop down this tube.
It makes it very difficult for them
to fly straight back up.
- [Narrator] Some species, like this American kestrel
are released at least 30 miles from the airport
with a numbered band around their leg.
- From that, we get good data
on is that bird staying away from the airport?
Is it hanging around?
- [Narrator] So what happens when there is a strike?
- If a pilot calls in that they had a strike
on departure or arrival,
the first thing we're gonna do
is send someone out to inspect that runway.
If it's an aircraft that's on departure,
we may reach out to the airport
that they're headed towards
and let 'em know that there's a aircraft coming in
that had a strike and to please collect the snarge.
- [Narrator] This is snarge,
the remains of a bird after a strike.
- This is all that's left from this strike.
But it's clearly a snowy owl.
And this is where we put all the wildlife remains
that we find out in the airfield
while we're completing the strike reports.
- [Narrator] Sometimes when it's a very small amount
of material, it can be difficult to identify the species.
- So a sample of this will be sent
to the Smithsonian Institution's Feather ID Lab
for identification, and they'll be able
to identify the species for us.
- [Narrator] Qualified maintenance teams also review
most bird strikes for any damage.
If the damage is minor,
like a broken light lens cap,
it can be quickly repaired between flights.
But if it's more severe
or a snarge needs to be cleaned off multiple parts
of the aircraft, for example,
this can lead to delays or canceled flights.
- Our goal in wildlife is not just the safety
of the aircraft.
That's the main thing but also, we wanna make sure
that we're not impacting airport operations.
So even if you do have some sort
of strike that doesn't cause damage,
we want those aircraft to continue moving
and we don't wanna disrupt air traffic.
- Clear, check with the 9904.
- [Narrator] To ensure that your flight takes off
and lands safely, and on time,
wildlife management teams run diverse programs year round
to target the airport's unique wildlife population.
- If we're doing our job well,
you don't notice us at all
and we should be silent and hidden and invisible
to the average traveler.
- [Narrator] Unless you happen to be hanging out
with a flock of birds.
(horn honking)