It’s time to kill the geese.
It’s especially time to kill those geese most likely to wreck another jet airliner, much as a gaggle of Canada geese seems to have brought down US Airways Flight 1549 Thursday.
This time, all 155 passengers and crew were lifted from the icy Hudson River – an extraordinarily exceptional outcome.
Next time? Who knows.
Canada geese are a serious threat to human life and property – not to mention a major pain to pedestrians, motorists and folks who just like to spread a picnic blanket in a park.
Obviously, the official cause of the crash won’t be declared for a while. But nobody doubts that it was what pilots call a “bird strike” – just as nobody doubts that the guilty birds were Canada geese.
That’s because Canada geese are everywhere – and they’re out of control.
Every year, more than 10,000 US planes collide with birds, and geese are among the most deadly: They’re big, and they fly in flocks.
Planes into and out of JFK Airport experience an average of more than one bird strike a day, says Steven Garber, a former director of wildlife management at Port Authority airports.
LaGuardia, says Garber, where Flight 1549 originated, is an absolute “death trap.” He himself avoids using it.
Nationwide, damage runs to more than $600 million a year. Since 1988, at least 219 people have died worldwide, thanks to these wholly avoidable collisions.
Geese appear to have been sucked into Flight 1549’s engines, causing a stall-out that forced the pilot to make a spectacular emergency landing in the Hudson.
But if ever there was an easily avoidable accident, this was it.
Garber says it’s simple to get rid of the geese, if the authorities really want to – you can catch them and kill them.
Ah, but tough federal and state laws get in the way.
True, “wildlife management plans” are meant to address the problem at airports. But the rules can be loosened further. And those responsible for carrying them out can do a far better job.
Beyond airport vicinities, it’s even harder to tamper with geese (let alone kill them) – even as they coat parks and playgrounds everywhere in layers of disgusting goose poop.
This is unsightly, unsanitary – and totally unacceptable.
Something needs to be done.
Imagine if the US Airways plane had come down just a few hundred yards farther north – crashing into the George Washington Bridge and taking out the Interstate-95 economic corridor for who knows how long.
The death and physical destruction would have been catastrophic – and the economic fallout could have been almost as bad: There are more than 107 million vehicle crossings of the span annually, including 16 million trucks.
What’s to be done?
Yesterday, aides to Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Paterson and Sen. Chuck Schumer had nothing much to say.
Fine. Only 24 hours had passed since the near-tragedy.
Not so fine if they’re not energized to do something about this problem soon.
The airport geese need to be gone – and there’s no time to lose.