FAA Bird Strike Database Available to Public

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made its entire bird strike database available on a public Web site today, April 24. Portions of the database have been publicly available since the information was first collected in 1990, but the public will now be able to access all of the database's fields.

The FAA list details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990, including 28 cases since 2000 when a collision with a bird or other animal such as a deer on a runway was so severe that the aircraft was considered destroyed.

The FAA has edited a very small amount of data in the database containing privacy information, such as personal phone numbers.

Over the next four months, the FAA will make significant improvements to the database to improve the search function and make it more user-friendly. In its current format, users will only be able to perform limited searches online but will be able to download the entire database.

The FAA also plans to work with the aviation community to find ways to improve and strengthen bird strike reporting.

The database can be accessed through http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/temp.html#access.

Airports are major cooperators with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services.

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