Airport Honored for Humanely Preventing Bird Strikes
If you have a flight scheduled into or out of Seattle-Tacoma airport, congratulations. You’ll be in the good hands of the most progressive airport in the nation.
When thinking airplane safety, most airports don’t do a whole lot to take into consideration all the birds who are forced to share their airspace with us—which results in 7,000 to 8,000 bird strikes (i.e., dead birds) reported to the Federal Aviation Administration every year. Seattle-Tacoma airport is doing its part to reduce those numbers. And, no, this isn’t because of that famous splash-down on the Hudson.
Seattle-Tacoma uses several techniques in its fight to keep birds (and humans) safe. A staff wildlife biologist, who has been there for 30 years, uses radar to detect birds who may intercept flights. Once birds are detected, the airport uses lasers to try to scare them away, and if the lasers don’t work, it uses “thunderclap” fireworks. With an animal-friendly lightshow like that, it’s no wonder that we’re awarding Sea-Tac our Most Progressive Airport Proggy.
This has me thinking about other ways that airports can save animals. Don’t you think that they should take PETA up on some of our ideas?
Written by Shawna Flavell
