June 11, 2009

Thursday, a hearing with the National Transportation Safety Board will wrap up with the main focus being on bird strikes. The very incident that took down a U.S. Airways jet that made a splash-landing in the Hudson River in New York.

Now, the focus is being shifted to airports to ramp up their effort in minimizing the danger. But, just how prevalent are bird strikes in our area and what’s being done locally to keep our airports safe?

Everyday hundreds of passengers fly in and out of the Pocatello Regional Airport, most of them unaware about the multiple safety checks going on before their plane ever leaves the ground.

David Allen, Manger, Pocatello Regional Airport: “Every airport that has commercial passenger service is required to have a wildlife plan.”

That wildlife plan is designed to keep birds and other wildlife as far away as possible from the runway and more importantly the planes.

David Allen: “We look at the environment and do everything we can to reduce the friendliness of it to the wildlife.”

That means keeping the grass cut short so there’s no place for the birds and other animals to hide and eliminating food sources on the airport.

David Allen: “We follow that up with observation.”

The airport also does two daily checks around the 7 mile perimeter fence. The pilots and the control tower also call in whenever they see something that could pose a threat.

David Allen: “If we find that there is a hazard then we take the action, which is typically hazing.”

That includes using special noise making guns to scare the birds away.

David Allen: “On take off or landing, that’s the most critical part of flight and it’s just absolutely imperative that we do whatever we can to minimize that risk.”

David Allen, the airport manager at Pocatello Regional says there haven’t been any reported birds strikes in the two years he’s worked at the airport. The Idaho Falls Regional Airport also has a similar wildlife mitigation plan.