Wildlife collisions

What this relates to

A bird strike or collision with an animal during takeoff or landing can cause damage to the aircraft. The damage can impair flight safety. Only if animal sightings or recovered animal carcasses can be unambiguously attributed to a collision is it recorded as a wildlife collision.

Example

An aircraft hits a bird during takeoff. The bird ends up in the engine. Shortly thereafter, the engine starts to vibrate in an unusual manner. The aircraft returns to the departure airport, where it is discovered that the turbine is damaged. The flight must be cancelled, but fortunately for the passengers they can be rebooked on another flight.

Commentary on the 2023 figures

Collisions with wild animals increased: from 5.6 incidents per 10,000 flight movements in 2022 to 6.0 in 2023. In figures: There were 734 incidents in 2019 (the current record) and 712 last year.

Only 50% of the collisions took place in Swiss airspace; the other half, reported by Swiss operators, occurred abroad. Most of the reports (95%) related to commercial air transport; only 5% to general aviation. As most propeller-driven aircraft travel relatively slowly, general aviation collisions tend to have a lower impact. According to studies, both pilots and birds have time to take diversionary action. Nevertheless, airspeed is not the sole factor that determines the severity of a collision. A large bird can have severe consequences for aircraft safety even if it is flying slowly. Most collisions in 2023 had negligible effects on aircraft. Collisions resulted in damage to the aircraft in less than 10% of the incidents; serious incidents accounted for less than 1% of the total.

Again in 2023, over 80% of collisions occurred within the perimeter of the aerodrome, i.e. during approach, landing or takeoff. The remaining 20% occurred during cruise flight or in some other unidentified flight phase. Birds were a factor in more than 99% of cases. Almost 70% of collisions occurred between May and October, with a maximum in July (128).

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