Northmont grad on team that identified feathers of geese involved in ‘Miracle on the Hudson.’

June 9, 2009

When U.S. Airways flight 1549 hit a flock of geese and landed in the Hudson River in New York on Jan. 15, it represented a miracle for those relieved to find every passenger on the plane alive.

It also represented a shock. Who knew birds — in this case, Canada geese — could wreak so much havoc on an airplane?

Marcy Heacker-Skeans, a 1982 Northmont High School graduate, knew. She and three colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution are tasked with taking the often goopy remains of birds that have hit aircraft and identifying the type of bird. Within days of the Hudson River crash, she and her colleagues, led by the appropriately named Carla Dove, were receiving packages of goose remains and verifying that, in fact, the flock that collided with the “Miracle on the Hudson” was a flock of Canada geese.

For Heacker-Skeans, who has worked in the Feather Identification Lab for 13 years, another miracle was in store. The team broke scientific ground by using new research methods to verify that the geese the plane hit were migratory, not full-time residents of the area.

Here’s why that’s important: Airports spend millions of dollars and devote countless hours to making airports as unattractive as possible for birds, employing everything from loud noises to scare the birds to keeping the grass mowed to keep flocks away. If the geese that hit flight 1549 were permanent New Yorkers, LaGuardia Airport might need to use new methods to scare them away.

It turns out they were tourists.

The Feather Identification Lab, along with research scientists at the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, did a complicated bit of detective work, examining the stable-hydrogen isotopes from the feathers to determine what the geese had eaten and then determining whether their food was similar to resident Canada geese in the city. They discovered that the birds’ diets weren’t those of New York Canada geese. It was the first time the team had used such information in their years of identifying feathers.

Heacker-Skeans, 45, said being able to use that information was “very, very valuable” and could bode well on further research. The Hudson River crash is the most high-profile case she’s been involved in during her years in feather identification. She said the results could help change practices at the Federal Aviation Administration, which currently does not require civil aircraft to report when they hit birds.

Despite her work, she still feels safe in airplanes, noting that aircraft are engineered to withstand quite a bit.

“I love to fly,” she said. “It’s just when I’m taking off and landing, I look at the runway differently than other passengers.”

Cox News Service file photo by Rick McKay Clayton native Marcy Heacker-Skeans holds a bag of bird feathers sent to her for identification following a “bird strike” with a jet. Heacker-Skeans uses her own knowledge and the Smithsonian’s 650,000-plus species collection to positively identify types of birds involved in bird strikes.