National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators are probing the Jan. 15 crash of a US Airways Airbus A-320 (N106US) into the icy Hudson River minutes after it departed LaGuardia Airport bound for Charlotte, NC. One passenger aboard US Airways Flight 1549 suffered two broken legs but no other serious injuries were reported, helping to extend the U.S. airline industry’s two-year fatality-free record.
It is believed that the twin-engine jetliner powered by CFM-56 turbofans, with 155 passengers and crew on board, suffered multiple bird strikes. Federal officials said it might have flown through a large flock of Canada geese, sucking some into its engines.
After the stricken airliner made the extraordinary emergency water landing, a flotilla of commercial vessels quickly arrived on the scene to pluck shivering passengers—many holding onto the plane’s wings—to safety.
The plane had suffered “a double bird strike,” one of the pilots told an air traffic controller at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control. Rory Kay, who is executive air safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association is quoted as saying” it’s “quite rare, but certainly not unheard of,” for birds to shut down two engines of a plane.”
More will be known on the cause of the airline crash after Safety Board investigators analyze the cockpit and flight data recorders and interview the veteran pilots who were able to ‘land’ the plane without loss of life.
The investigators brought in a giant crane and a barge on Jan. 16 to help pull the US Airways jetliner from the Hudson River. They will scour the two CFM-56 powerplants for evidence of a bird strike.
New York area airports are no stranger to in-flight collisions with feathered creatures. There is a history of airliners departing Kennedy International ingesting sea gulls. In December 2006, a great blue heron was sucked into one of two Boeing 767 engines shortly after takeoff. The jetliner safely returned to the airport. All the airports have programs in place to scare birds away from their runways.
There was another incident at La Guardia as recently as 2003, when an American Airlines Fokker 100 plane reportedly hit a flock of geese upon takeoff, causing the right engine to fail. The flight was diverted to Kennedy International. Canada geese pose a particular danger to aircraft because of their size.
As reported by Air Safety Week, the NTSB’s investigation into the Oct. 23, 2007 night training accident that killed two pilots shows that a Canada goose collided with the PIPER PA-44-180 (N327ND).
The airplane was in cruise flight at 4,500 feet mean sea level (msl) when the airplane abruptly departed controlled flight and impacted a bog.
A post accident examination of the debris showed that the left half of the horizontal stabilator was bent upward approximately 90 degrees, inconsistent with the damage to the remainder of the airframe. This damage was consistent with the initial left yaw and nose down pitch recorded during the upset.
A depression and tear were observed on the upper wing skin near the left wing tip. Microscopic examination and DNA testing by forensic ornithologists identified the material on the wing skin section as remains of a Canada goose.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the fatal accident was “an in-flight collision with at least one Canada goose, and the resulting damage to the left stabilator that caused the airplane to become uncontrollable. Contributing to the accident was the night lighting condition, which precluded any possibility of the flight crew seeing the bird(s) prior to impact.”
Aircraft collisions with birds and other wildlife are a safety and economic concern for the U.S. aviation industry because of expanding populations of many wildlife species that are hazardous to aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has collected reports of wildlife strikes to civil aircraft in a national database since 1990.
Twenty-four of the 36 largest bird species in North America have shown significant population increases in the past 30 years and only three species have shown declines. The non-migratory population of Canada geese (more than tripled from 1.0 million to 3.5 million birds in the USA.
To make matters worse, modern turbofan-powered aircraft, with quieter engines, are less obvious to birds compared to noisier piston-powered aircraft and older turbine-powered aircraft.
The FAA database provides a scientific foundation for national policies and guidance designed to reduce strikes. The database contained about 73,500 reported strikes, 1990- 2006, about one strike for every 10,000 non-military flights. About 7,100 wildlife strikes were reported in 2006 compared to 1,700 in 1990. In 2007, over 7,600 birds and other wildlife were reported to have hit civil aircraft in the U.S. The Bird Strike Committee USA says bid strikes cause $600 million in damage to aircraft in the U.S. every year.
Since 2000, at least 486 commercial aircraft have collided with birds, according to the FAA. Of those incidents, 166 led to emergency landings and 66 resulted in aborted takeoffs.
U.S. carriers went two years (2007 and 2008) without a single passenger fatality, and 2009’s record remains unblemished, A fatality-free year in carrier history is rare, an analysis by the industry trade group, Air Transport Association, found. There have only been four separate years since 1958 without a passenger death, among them 1998 and 2003. Thus, the two-year streak in 2007 and 2008 is all the more remarkable.
2008 was one of the best years on record for air safety, according to the latest data from Ascend (http://www.ascendworldwide.com), which tracks airline crashes. Ascend’s annual safety bulletin shows a 25 per cent decline between 2007 and 2008 in the number of fatalities resulting from aircraft accidents.
With 539 reported passenger and crew fatalities, 2008 represents a notable improvement on the 730 fatalities recorded in 2007 and makes last year the safest on record, bar one. Only 2004 recorded fewer fatalities at 434. However, 2008 also saw 28 fatal air accidents in total, an increase of 17 per cent on 2007’s 24.
The fatal accident rate for 2008 of 1 per 1.3 million flights is better than the overall rate for the nine years since 2000 of 1 per 1.2 million flights. The year also compares very favorably with those of the 1990s, which recorded an average of 37.4 fatal accidents per year. Furthermore, in the 1990s, an average of 1,128 people died each year – more than twice the number in 2008.
“These are very reassuring statistics,” says Paul Hayes, Ascend’s director. “Although there were more fatal accidents this year than last, far fewer people died. The chances of dying in a serious air accident have reduced significantly and overall, passenger safety has improved. Despite my earlier misgivings, I am pleased to report that some industry actions, such as the European Union’s controversial blacklisting, have proved effective.”
The worst accident of 2008 was the Spanair MD-80 crash in August, which killed 149 of the 166 passengers on board and five of six crew when it crashed beside the runway at Madrid Barajas Airport. Only two other accidents killed more than 50 people; the Aeroflot Nord (Boeing 737) and Itek Air (Boeing 737) crashes resulted in 82 and 65 deaths respectively.
Several recent industry developments have contributed to the overall improvement in air safety over time, says Hayes. “While there has been a tragic loss of life this year, the safety record for 2008 is good news for the industry. Developments such as the European Union’s blacklisting of unsafe airlines, IATA’s Operational Safety Audit for member airlines and improved adherence to international safety regulations are all working to make the skies safer for passengers.”