February 16, 2017 (Thursday)
Yesterday an airliner hit a deer while taking off at Charlotte. The airport is surrounded by woods filled with deer and other wildlife. A fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the area. The fence is 19 miles long.
People offered suggestions about the situation, and one hunter suggested that they ask hunters to patrol the fence with shotguns, handguns and other weapons. There would be no charge for their services, he said, and the airport would be safer at no charge. Perhaps he was joking, but I’m sure there would be many volunteers if the plan were to be put into effect. The hunting season would be year-round.
The near disaster in New York City in which a plane hit wild geese and ditched in the Hudson river made many people aware of the fact that airplanes and wildlife occasionally collide. Click here to read about the subject.
From 1990 to 2015, planes also hit 529 species of birds, 42 other species of terrestrial mammals, 22 species of bats and 18 species of reptiles, according to an FAA report.
Wildlife strikes killed about 260 airplane passengers and destroyed nearly 250 aircraft during that period, the report said.
I’m sure you don’t need something new to worry about, but at least while you were reading this, you were not hearing or reading all the other bad news of today’s world.
