Photo: Olaser/Getty Images Plane-on-animal violence has existed since the invention of aircraft. One of the Wright brothers struck a bird while flying over a cornfield in Ohio in 1905. The brother survived; no word about the bird, but we can assume the worst. In 1909, a mustachioed Frenchman named Louis Blériot was preparing to fly across the English Channel when a farm dog ran into his plane’s propeller and was blended to death.
It had also never occurred to me that my local airport was patrolled by sharpshooters scanning the skies for avian threats, but of course it was. JFK was built on marshland, and marshland attracts wildlife. When it comes to aircraft, wildlife is no different than engine failure or hijackers or extreme weather or negligent maintenance. It is a peril that must be addressed.
Or perhaps not. Terror, after all, is a reliable stimulant. The stated objective of the FAA manual is basically this: Here is how to make an airport animal-proof so that everyone can fly safely.
Across the nation’s tarmacs, wildlife flourishes. Florida is haunted by the menace of airplane-curious alligators. Feral dogs across the nation lurk beneath piles of airport construction debris, awaiting their chance to dart into the path of an oncoming 747. In New Zealand, earthworms wriggle en masse onto the runways after heavy rains, attracting gulls. Raccoons, rabbits, caribou, foxes, and cattle: all potentially death-causing, though the vast majority of incidents are bird-related.
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