Bird-brained at the FAA
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WHITE HOUSE press secretary Robert Gibbs recently shooed away a reporter's question on the Federal Aviation Administration's plan to bar public access to data about how often airlines strike birds. He said, "I would direct you to the FAA on that." That's weak for an administration that crows about transparency.
The White House itself should direct the FAA to update and maintain bird strike data on its website.
There is no reason to hide the information. Jets are sturdy enough to withstand small-bird strikes, which is why the public has heard very little about the 106,604 strikes that the FAA currently posts from 1990 to August 2008. But the Canada geese strike that forced the fabled US Airways jet landing in the Hudson River this winter spooked the FAA into a March filing in the Federal Register. The agency said it is "concerned" that the disclosure of raw data on bird strikes "could unfairly cast unfounded aspersions on the submitter." The FAA's proposed rule would make reporting the data voluntary.
The FAA may be more concerned that big-bird strikes, while still rare, are on the increase and it doesn't know what to do about it. In fresh data obtained by USA Today, strikes of geese-sized birds, which in the 1990s averaged 323 a year, averaged 524 a year from 2000 to 2007. On Monday, a passenger flight returned to Orlando after hitting a bald eagle. No one was hurt.
Airline pilots are frustrated that the FAA, despite a 1999 directive by the National Transportation Safety Board, remains years away from reliable radar to spot low-flying birds in takeoff and landing paths. The secrecy the FAA seeks does not inspire confidence. Data on aircraft avian strikes should fly as free as a bird.
