4 ms·

Birds are already programmed for that. It's called self preservation. Airplanes are huge chunks of metal that make a deafening roar. Grown men are rightly afra

• mschuster91 8y ago
  > Birds are already programmed for that. It's called self preservation. Not exactly. Bird strikes are a huge problem especially in "congested" environments, aka humans sealing up more and more former forest/agricultural land with concrete... and thus forcing the birds to airports as they usually have spacious amounts of grass land with ample space for insects. There's a reason why bird strikes are most prevalent in city airports, simply because the birds don't have anywhere else to go. Worst case IIRC was the plane that emergency-landed in an NYC river due to colliding with an entire flock of geese.
  • SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    Are they a "huge" problem? How many occur every day? How many fatal accidents do they cause - as a percentage of all flights?
    • mschuster91 8y ago
      What makes the problem "huge" is the fear of bird strikes. You can read up (e.g.) on https://www.thespruce.com/how-do-airports-prevent-bird-strikes-386490 https://www.thespruce.com/how-do-airports-prevent-bird-strik.... In absolute numbers, per FAA there were 13k bird strike events in 2016, with 262 deaths+279 injuries from 1990-2013 (so about 11 deaths/year on average): https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/faq/ https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/faq/ Obviously most birdstrikes are harmless but everyone fears a scenario like in 2009 in NYC.
• bduerst 8y ago
  Except evolution never programmed the birds to steer clear of large, fast-moving aircraft - hence the need to scare them away.