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STEVEN DAY/Associated Press
Passengers waiting to board a rescue ferry gather Thursday on the wings of a US Airways jetliner after it ditched in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The plane struck a flock of birds that knocked out both of its engines, but all of the 155 passengers and crew members were rescued.
Calling bird collisions with commercial jets a safety threat, Sacramento International Airport officials this week are seeking a law allowing them to kill birds that can't be frightened from airport grounds by other means.
The county's initiative came, ironically, just two days before a dramatic crash landing Thursday of a U.S. Airways flight into New York's Hudson River after the pilot reported a bird strike, apparently while flying through a flock.
Birds and jets collide frequently, with 7,666 reported instances nationally in 2007, or about one known strike for every 10,000 flights. But it is rare for strikes to cause crashes, injuries or fatalities to passengers, federal officials said.
Sacramento – which lies in the Pacific Flyway bird migration path – has the most bird strikes of any airport in the West, and sixth most in the country, the Federal Aviation Administration reports.
Sacramento recorded 1,300 collisions between birds and jets between 1990 and 2007, causing an estimated $1.6 million in damage to jets. The collisions usually happen during takeoffs and landings.
No crashes or passenger injuries have been recorded as a result of those strikes, Sacramento officials said.
"Bird strikes are a problem for us," Sacramento airport spokeswoman Karen Doron said Thursday. "And we want to do everything we can to make this airport as safe as we can for passengers."
Airport officials are working to draft legislation that will suit their needs and then will seek a lawmaker to sponsor it.
The FAA requires airports to take ongoing steps to reduce wildlife on and around airports, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. In Sacramento, that includes a federal permit to use guns, nets, pesticides, drugs, falcons and traps, permits show.
Sacramento airport officials say they previously used shotguns to kill a small percentage of problem birds, but only when the birds could not be rousted by other means, such as booming noises played through loudspeakers.
Sacramento officials were forced to stop in 2007 when the state Department of Fish and Game notified them they were violating state codes.
Airport reports indicate officials killed 891 birds in 2007, less than 2 percent of birds that airport workers "harassed" or hazed.
Attorney Jim Pachl of the Friends of the Swainson's Hawk group called that number "ridiculous" and unnecessary.
"Occasionally, you have to remove a bird to protect human safety," Pachl said. "But this can be handled for the most part by hazing or other non-lethal methods. If this bill passes as written, I'm afraid airports are going to take it as carte blanche" to kill birds.
Most local bird strikes occur during the December and March migration season. Eleven bird strikes were reported in Sacramento during the first week of December, and six planes were damaged, officials said.
One Sacramento bird strike in 2005, listed as significant by the FAA, caused $200,000 damage to a jet. The pilot of a plane reported seeing a large white bird fly past the cockpit, then heard a loud pop. The left engine began to vibrate. The pilot turned around and made a safe landing.
In another significant Sacramento incident in 2004, passengers reported seeing a flock of geese flying by. The subsequent strike dented and punctured a wing, causing the plane to make a precautionary landing.
The FAA reports 82,000 bird strikes since 1990, mainly in the United States, but estimates that only 20 percent of incidents get reported.
One out of seven bird strikes involves a bird being sucked into an engine, federal data show.
If a jet engine becomes inoperable because of a bird strike, most twin-engine jets can fly long distances on one engine, the FAA's Gregor said.
More frequently, birds hit the windshield or the nose of the plane, federal data show.
In one notable instance, a bird that struck a jet taking off at Los Angeles International caused so much damage that the engine housing fell off and landed on a nearby beach, Gregor said.
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