Annual reports of wildlife strikes in U.S. aviation have increased more than nine-fold since 1990 to a record-high 17,228 reported strikes in 2019, the most recent year for which complete data are available, two U.S. government agencies say in a joint report.
The report by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services, issued in February, said that 94 percent of the strikes in 2019 involved birds, 3.2 percent involved bats, 2.3 percent involved terrestrial mammals, and 0.5 percent involved reptiles.
The report attributed the increased collisions between aircraft and wildlife to the growing populations of large birds and the increase in the number of relatively quieter, turbofan aircraft.
Despite the dramatic increase in the total number of reported wildlife strikes, the number of damaging strikes – 710 â…
