Safety experts spearhead efforts to minimize bird strikes

Published April 9, 2009
By Staff Sgt. Jason Lake
455th Air Expeditionary Wing

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan -- Americans witnessed first hand the severity of bird strikes when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash landed in the Hudson River in New York City after hitting a flock of birds in January.

Lt. Col. Charles Wallace and his team of seven safety experts with the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing safety office, do their part to ensure a similar disaster doesn't happen at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, through an aggressive Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard program.

Historically, aircraft operating out of Bagram hit more birds than any other airfield in the U.S. Air Forces Central area of responsibility.

"During the first quarter of this fiscal year, Bagram bird strikes accounted for one-third of all strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan," Colonel Wallace explained. "We've had twice as many bird strikes as the next airfield in the AOR."

Tech. Sgt. Shane Sweeney, the wing's weapons safety manager, said Bagram was also approaching the peak season for bird strikes.

"Based on historical data, the highest threat occurs during migratory seasons which are early April through June and late August through October," he explained.

Tech. Sgt. Jason Stiyer, the flight safety non-commissioned officer here, said the first quarter of 2009 was shaping up to be the worst year yet for bird strikes as totals were double the five year average for the same time period.

"In the last week of February we had six bird strikes in nine days," Sergeant Stiyer said indicating that spring migration had started.

But the statistics here are making a drastic turnaround and the safety experts attribute this to a new comprehensive strategy of persistent depredation and habitat denial techniques in addition to hiring three local falconers. The team's new strategy has been so successful over the past month, that it is now being studied at various bases throughout the AOR.

After employing aggressive depredation efforts and incorporating suggestions made by U.S. Department of Agriculture experts that visited the base in February, the team had cut the first quarter bird strikes in half.

The unit hired three local falconers to see what kind of impact it would have on the thousands of birds that were lining areas near the flightline.

"We hired the team from the local area for a three month evaluation," Colonel Wallace said about the unit's effort to hire professional help. "This approach gave us access to local expertise so we are supporting the local economy at the same time. It's a win-win situation."

The lieutenant colonel said the falconer team, using three falcons and handmade traps at hot spots around the airfield, caught or killed more than 50 birds on their first day. By the end of their first week in mid-March, the falconers had caught or killed more than 250 birds. More importantly, the birds that were not killed or captured quickly noticed the new predators in their neighborhood and began to disappear from the targeted areas.

"It was a pretty dramatic change after about 10 days," explained Sergeant Stiyer who regularly scouted areas with a shotgun and pyrotechnics to scare off birds near the air traffic control tower. "It used to be so bad that we didn't have enough ammo to scare off the thousands of birds here, now look, there are hardly any birds at all."

The safety team also attributed their dramatic turnaround to several other factors including the team increasing their inventory of shotguns, ammunition and pyrotechnics for "harassing" birds; monitoring peak hours of bird migratory patterns; and implementing aggressive habitat denial techniques.

"The collective lethal, non-lethal and habitat denial efforts of the BASH program have proven highly effective and will likely become a benchmark program for other bases/forward operating bases in Afghanistan," said a recent report forwarded to senior leadership within Afghanistan.

The safety officers have also taken some of their program ideas "on the road."

Sergeant Stiyer rapidly deployed to FOB Salerno March 8-11 to help develop a BASH program after a series of serious bird strikes at the airfield in eastern Afghanistan. The unit provided airfield management at Salerno with two shotguns, 1,000 shells and a draft BASH operating instruction for implementing bird watch conditions and active depredation on the flightline to minimize the threat of bird strikes.

"[FOB Salerno] never really had a plan in place because the Army's rotary wing aircraft typically don't have problems with bird strikes," explained Sergeant Stiyer. "The problem is that the Air Force C-130s that provides supplies to the FOB are more vulnerable to bird strikes, so we had to develop a program to minimize the emerging threat." explained Colonel Wallace. "Now that we helped set up a BASH program here at one of the largest FOBs in the theater, they are taking off and running with it."

The safety office also recently shared their program details with safety experts throughout the AOR and Capt. Matt Strohmeyer, chief of flight safety, presented the unit's results during a recent International Security Assistance Force Flight Safety Conference in Kabul. Some of the units at the conference have expressed interest in starting similar programs.

The safety office hopes their program will pay off over the long term and keep aircraft focused on their primary mission - supporting U.S. and coalition troops fighting insurgents on the ground.

"Sustaining the joint fight is what we're all about," said Captain Strohmeyer.