The Federal Aviation Administration made its entire Bird Strike Database available on a public website last week, withdrawing an earlier proposal to protect the data after the close of a 30-day comment period on the now-abandoned initiative. As previously reported [see CCH AVIATION LAW REPORTS No. 1400, March 26, 2009], the agency had sought to limit public access to data regarding bird and other animal strikes encountered by aircraft in order to encourage the continued voluntary reporting of such incidents by pilots, air traffic controllers, air carrier personnel, and airport operations employees. Portions of the database had been publicly available since the information first started being collected in 1990, but the public now has access to all of the database’s fields. A small amount of data containing privacy information, such as personal telephone numbers, was redacted by the agency before releasing the entire database to the public, FAA indicated. Over the next four months, FAA intends to make “significant improvements” to the database in order to improve search function and user-friendliness. In its current format, users are able to perform only limited searches online, but may download the database in its entirety. The agency also said that it plans to work with the aviation community to find ways to improve and strengthen bird-strike reporting. The database is accessible at http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/index.html#access.

For his part, Mark V. Rosenker, Acting Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, praised the Department of Transportation and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for the decision to publicly release the bird-strike data. Before it was withdrawn, NTSB had filed an objection to FAA’s proposal to bar public release of the data. In 1999, the Board recommended that FAA require all airplane operators to report bird strikes, rather than the voluntary-reporting scheme currently in place. Aviation Law Reports, Report Letter No. 1402, April 30, 2009.