Bird safety program earns great results
by Capt. Neil Nipper - Air Armament Center Public Affairs
Released: 22 Mar 1999
Because of the success of the bird air strike hazard, or BASH, program at Eglin Air
Force Base, Fla., the number of bird strikes dropped from 42 in fiscal 1997 to 33 in
fiscal 98. Propane-powered air cannons frighten birds around the flightline area here.
(Courtesy photo) |
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- The results speak for themselves: during
the past three years the number of bird strikes reported at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. has
dramatically decreased.
Experts from around the base who form the bird air strike hazard, or BASH,
program agree that recent steps taken have substantially improved the safety of aircrews
operating off Eglin runways.
The number of bird strikes dropped from 42 in fiscal 1997 to 33 in fiscal 1998.
Only nine bird strikes have been reported in the first five months of fiscal 1999.
"We've changed many of our procedures during the past few years and even
added some new technology," said Maj. Stu Hacker, Air Armament Center chief of flight
safety. "The results we've seen can be attributed to a combination of these
initiatives."
The additional technology includes the installation of 30 computer-operated
propane "cannons" that speckle the airfield. The cannons, installed in February
1998, don't fire ammunition, but work by creating a loud noise that drives birds from the
area. They can be remotely fired from either the air traffic control tower or base
operations.
Eglin purchased the system in late 1997 for $120,000.
"While the system is not cheap, you just can't put a price on the lives of
the aircrews using our runways," said Tech. Sgt. John Thurston, 96th Civil Engineer
Group noncommissioned officer in charge of entomology.
Other safety programs around the Air Force were quick to take notice of Eglin's
results.
"Once we started seeing the positive effects of the cannons, I received
calls from Randolph AFB, Texas, an Air National Guard base in Michigan and
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, asking what they could do to improve their BASH
programs," Thurston said.
Although Hacker likes the numbers he sees, he acknowledges that Mother Nature
and other factors outside the scope of the BASH program have certainly helped.
"Eglin is situated right in the middle of two major bird migration flying
corridors," Hacker said. "One is the Mississippi River and the other is the East
Coast of the U.S. We also haven't had the large rainfall we experienced during the winter
months of 1998."
Even so, the BASH team, composed of members from flight safety, entomology, base
operations, natural resource management and the air traffic control tower are pleased with
the result of their combined efforts.
"We have a comprehensive program that focuses on many areas in order to
make a safer operating environment for aircrews," Hacker said. "Once the program
is up and running, it's just a matter of managing the various safety precautions we
instituted."
These precautions include keeping the grass on the airfield mowed between four
and seven inches tall, keeping garbage dumpsters near the flightline empty, routinely
spraying the airfield with pesticides and generally making the Eglin flight paths an
unwelcome place for birds and other animals.
"If we can take reasonable steps to make Eglin's airfield safer for flying,
we not only benefit the military flying units, but the Okaloosa Regional Airport as
well," Hacker said.
