Danger in the skies - Flights,Travel Airport News

Airport news for Flights,Travel on 08/06/2009.

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If you’re afraid of flying or fly regularly either for business of pleasure, you can’t help but weigh up the risks sometimes. We all know that flying is by far the safest form of transport, with the highest risks of crashing coming from engine failure or pilot fatigue.

However, it would seem that there is one risk that is largely overlooked. Major flights regularly fail to take into consideration the dangers for local wildlife, according to recent findings.

A report by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has discovered that many airports in both Europe and America fail to carry out studies of wildlife hazards, even though there has been a history of serious collisions between planes and birds or other animals.

However, a recent spate of flight disturbances are forcing airlines and airports to take another look at their relationship with local wildlife.

"It just shows how this problem has been ignored and shuffled to the side by the aviation community over the years," commented Paul Eschenfelder, who is the lead instructor in the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's airport wildlife control program to the press recently. "It takes a catastrophe to focus everybody's attention."

So spare a thought for our fine feathered friends when you next take to the skies. It seems that few others do.

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