Now to a growing controversy involving the FAA and bird strikes. Some safety advocates say the agency is backtracking on its promise to tell the public where those mid-air bird strikes are most likely to happen.
On January 15th, Captain Sullenberger's run-in with a flock of Canada Geese turned into a near tragedy.
Captain Sully's "Miracle on the Hudson" water landing brought home the increasing threat from a surging bird population.
Just last week, a Delta flight landed in New Orleans after losing an engine to a seagull, but now the FAA, the airlines and the airports want to keep bird strike data secret, arguing that making it public might discourage airports and pilots from voluntarily reporting bird strikes!
The FAA tells NBC news:
"We have developed a number of voluntary reporting systems to protect data and ensure there is robust reporting. These voluntary programs are vital to improving aviation safety."
"This is all about bird strikes, not national security! And the reality is we do have bird strikes and the public should know about them," said Mike Boyd, Aviation Consultant.
While few prove fatal, bird strikes are on the rise. In 1990, there were 1759, in 2007, there were 7600, and 166 emergency landings since 2000.
The Canada Geese population up 400% since 1990.
The FAA won't disclose which airports have the biggest problem with bird strikes.
Paul Eschenfelder is an airline captain, safety consultant and an expert on bird strikes, who says keeping bird strike data secret makes no sense.
"Why would you do that in an aviation safety program? You want all hands on deck! You want everybody on board, everybody working on the problem. You don't want have a bunch of people running around in secret doing it," said Paul Eschenfelder, Airline Bird Mitigation Expert.
Safety experts estimate only 20% of bird strikes are ever reported and the nation lacks a unified approach to dealing with bird strikes. The FAA and the airports insist they're dealing with hit, and the public doesn't need the details.
