Washington, Apr 26 (eFE).- Two United airline commercial planes that departed last night from Houston (Texas) had bird strikes and returned to George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the airline reported Wednesday.
“Both planes landed safely. We have reaccommodated our customers on other aircraft,” a United statement said.
So far this year there have been more than 2,000 reports of plane-bird strikes in the United States, and 85% of them involved commercial airline aircraft, according to the Federal Civil Aviation Administration (FAA).
In 2022, the agency received 17,191 bird-aircraft strike reports.
The FAA reported that on Tuesday night a United plane in flight to Santiago de Chile recorded a bird strike on the right wing.
About 20 minutes later than on another United plane, which had departed for Las Vegas, Nevada, the crew reported a possible bird strike.
The FAA has indicated that aircraft-bird strikes are a growing concern and are due, in part, to the increasing population of large birds and their inability to hear the quieter engines.
Although these encounters could have catastrophic consequences, only a small number of them result in injury to aircraft occupants.
The Fish and Wildlife Service indicates that collisions between birds and other animals with airplanes cause damage to civil and military aviation estimated at 900 million dollars annually, and that since 1988 these incidents have caused the death of more than 250 people in everyone.
This agency noted that collisions could be reduced by modifying aircraft flight schedules to avoid periods when bird activity is known to be most intense.
Likewise, changes in the habitat around airports could make these areas less attractive to birds, reducing their presence.
