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Plane bird-strike incidents declining, foundation says

Aircraft belonging to Taiwan-based airlines experienced 1,009 bird strikes between 2002 and last year, figures released yesterday by the Flight Safety Foundation of Taiwan yesterday showed.

Eighty-two cases occurred at foreign airports, and in 125 cases there was damage to the aircraft, meaning that on average one plane was damaged for every eight bird strikes.

The tallies show that 787, or 78 percent, of the bird strikes were recorded between the months of May and November.

Engines proved to be the most vulnerable part of a plane, with 75.6 percent of the damage involving engines, while 5.5 percent of the cases involved the wings and 4.7 percent involved the nose or landing lights.

Foundation officials said the incidence of bird strikes at local airports has been declining in recent years owing to the installation of bird-repelling devices. The number of bird strikes totalled 203 in 2002 and 237 in 2003, but dropped to 198 in 2004 and to 138 in 2005.
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