HOUSTON — Back-to-back bird strikes on United Airlines flights that took off from Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport last night are getting a lot of attention.
"We are declaring the emergency for the bird strike. Uh, we've got 168 souls on board," the United Flight 2086 pilot told air traffic control.
A pilot from United Flight 847 also contacted the air traffic control tower.
“Houston, right when we leveled off at 4,000, we heard a loud pop and we could feel something,” the pilot said. "Uh, it could be a bird. It could be a drone, we don't know. But all we know is we hit something."
Both flights were forced to make emergency landings at IAH. After dumping fuel, they landed safely and were able to take off again after getting checked out.
It was scarier for passengers on board an American Airlines flight that took off from Columbus, Ohio on Sunday. They could see flames outside the plane's windows after a bird strike.
"Was a lot of hand-holding, a lot of people closing their eyes and trying to text their loved ones and so forth like that. So, it was scary," passenger Greg Caragna told CNN.
"There was extreme rumbling, vibrations, the noise was deafening," passenger Matthew Danek said.
Another bird strike forced an Allegiant Air flight to return to St. Pete-Clearwater airport on Wednesday.
Those flights also landed safely.
'It's quite dramatic'
The FAA said over 17,000 wildlife strikes were reported in 2022.
The FAA's database shows 219 incidents at Bush IAH over the last year. There were 80 at Hobby Airport during the same time period.
Thankfully, there were no injuries at either airport.
The FAA said there are a few reasons behind the increase in strikes.
- Expanding wildlife populations
- Increases in the number of aircraft movements
- A trend toward faster and quieter aircraft
They also encourage airlines to report the strikes to help them collect accurate data so they can better understand the scope and nature of the problem.
- The FAA says it will take action to lower the risk.
- Habitat management
- Wildlife dispersal, removal and exclusion
- Detection/prediction of wildlife movements and behavior so that aircraft can avoid high-risk activities, both temporally and spatially
- Enhanced aircraft detection and avoidance by birds through novel aircraft lighting schemes.
While birds are most often the culprits, planes here have also hit skunks, opossums, bats and snakes.
Peak bird migration season
According to the National Park Service, the peak time for migrating birds is the last two weeks of April and the first week of May. That may explain the back-to-back bird strikes at IAH.
"In Harris County, the absolute pinnacle of bird migration starts tomorrow. It’s from [April] 27 through May 2, but migration, in general, starts all the way from April to did-May," said Kelsey Biles with the Houston Audubon.
Biles said bright lights at airports can attract some birds and could cause more strikes.
"Birds will go towards areas like airports because of the bright lights that they see, so airports will actually attract more strikes," she explained.
The Houston Airport has several procedures in place to help prevent wildlife strikes.