Birdstrikes are more common than you think

7 July, 2017

There has been a great deal of press of late around the impact birds can have on aircraft. In fact, this week alone, two separate incidents on AirAsia X and Virgin Australia flights have led to the grounding of aircraft.

What is interesting here, is that this is actually not that uncommon an occurrence. In fact, occurrences involving aircraft striking wildlife, particularly birds, are the most common aviation occurrence reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). In May-2017, 220 incidents were recorded by the ATSB. Granted, not all of these resulted in aircraft being grounded however some form of damage occurred.

According to the ATSB's Australian aviation wildlife strike statistics: 2006 - 2015, 16,069 birdstrike incidents occurred during this period.

Below is another Blue Swan Daily exclusive infographic which focusses on Australia's Accident and Incident Register for May-2017, sourced from the ATSB National Aviation Occurrence Database (05-Jul-2017).