General Aviation

NTSB’s investigation hearings of the Jan 15th, 2009 US Airways’ Airbus Flight 1549 bird-strike incident which led to the ditching of the aircraft in Hudson river have generated some potential recommendations – developing an on-aircraft anti-bird technology for rounding-up and wiping-out thousands of Canada Geese. At the hearings, Airbus test pilots supported Captain Sullenberger’s decision; to ditch the aircraft in the river instead of trying to make LaGuardia or Teterboro airports.

Airbus’ fly by wire system was commended for allowing Capt. Sullenberger to maintain the best airspeed for the ditching simply by holding the joystick in full aft position and letting the computers do the the rest; not letting the aircraft stall while he simply maintained the wings level.The hearings also reviewed and made public a rather compelling NTSB video animation with overlay-ed ATC audio and CVR content (textual). A board member’s call for more research into onboard bird-repellant or bird-deterrent technologies is supported by at least one study, conducted by Qantas and Precise Flight, which concluded that aircraft equipped with pulsed landing light system resulted in fewer bird strikes.

2004 Tests conducted by the U.S. Agriculture Department were less definitive; but further research (specifically, into flash frequency and light wavelengths) may be recommended by the NTSB.