You might think of airport security as all about detecting bombs, drugs and other contraband in the terminal. But some of the most serious threats to planes live outside — and have fur and feathers.
And at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, where the busy summer travel season is underway, airport officials have to think about everything that can affect a flight, from bad weather and terrorism to deer and grackles.
In the most famous example of the danger wildlife can pose to airplanes, in 2009 Charlotte-bound US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese during takeoff from New York. That knocked out both engines and led to the iconic “Miracle on the Hudson” landing.
David Castaneda is Charlotte Douglas' wildlife coordinator. He spends his days patrolling the airport’s perimeter looking for animals of all types. He’s been on the job for 13 years.
“After the first couple of years of doing this, I can tell you like clockwork, almost, when we're going to have an influx of bird strikes due to migration," Castaneda said.
His main focus while patrolling the airport premises: birds of all sizes, but especially big groups and big birds.
"We're focused on flocks of birds, and big birds that do flock as well,” Castaneda said. “That type of stuff is what we really hone in on. So we don't want, you know, ducks and geese and herons and stuff like that around the airport. We don't want flocks of pigeons and starlings and stuff like that around, either, because that really is what causes issues to aircraft.”
But his job is not all birds: Pilots also report encounters with oddities like turtles and opossums and more.
In 2017, a plane struck a deer during takeoff at Charlotte Douglas, puncturing a fuel tank and forcing an emergency landing.
The aviation industry uses the Federal Aviation Administration's National Wildlife Strike Database to collect information. Airlines also keep their own records of wildlife strikes. Castaneda says pilots and the industry do a good job of reporting strikes, but the voluntary system can leave some wildlife encounters uncounted.
“Until airlines, aircraft operators, and the industry as a whole reports all of their strikes to the NWSD we just aren’t getting the full picture of what is going on," he said.
Charlotte Douglas has placed signs around the taxiways to remind pilots to report wildlife strikes if they occur during their taxis or takeoffs.
Since 2018, the airport has averaged 191 wildlife strikes a year, according to the FAA. So far in 2023, there have been 58 strikes — mostly birds, but also recorded hits from a possum to a Brazilian free-tailed bat.
Most cause little or no damage. An exception is large birds like geese or vultures.
“A big-bodied bird with a lot of weight to it, it's going to have more percentage of likelihood that there's going to be damage to an aircraft," said Castaneda.
On one recent patrol, Castaneda stumbled across a small group of starlings. He fired a pyrotechnics gun to scare the birds away from the taxiway and runway. The gun fires blank rounds that produce a loud whistling and banging sound that keeps birds away.
Some of his tools are less sophisticated. Sometimes his job includes honking his truck's horn repeatedly at birds, which can get them to move away from the taxiways and runways.
Other animals require more sophisticated methods. Josh Cox and Corey Davis from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service place hawk traps around the airport to trap birds of prey, which are common around Charlotte Douglas.
The traps are baited with live pigeons to lure hunting hawks. Cox says he raises the pigeons, which are kept safe in a part of the trap that hawks can’t reach.
“So I maintain (the pigeons), at the house, and there's more that are sitting back at the house right now," Cox said. “They're fed well and taken care of.”
The hawks are tagged and released unharmed about 60 miles away — and not near other airports.
With Charlotte Douglas airport building a fourth runway, one focus is designing this new infrastructure to keep birds away from the start.
“We’ve got two bridges that are going up now and then each of those will include netting in them to exclude this from happening in the first place,” said Castaneda.
But when birds — or deer, possums or turtles — show up, Castaneda will be ready to trap them or chase them away.
