AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2020 - 106

NEWS & NOTES
LEGALLY SPEAKING

MEMBER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Aircraft
and wildlife
mergers

When two worlds collide
BY CRISTINA ZAMBRANA

BIRD STRIKE IS THE TERM given for events

involving the collision of aircraft and avian.
Bird strikes are common enough that the
Aeronautical Information Manual has a section dedicated to their hazards (in AIM 7-4).
But strikes with all types of wildlife are possible; we've even heard of midair strikes with
fish jettisoned from eagles' talons.
Pilots understand that "mergers" with
wildlife come with command decisions.
FAR 91.7 requires the pilot in command to
discontinue the flight when unairworthy
mechanical, electrical, or structural conditions occur. Pilots should consider whether
a strike results in an in-flight emergency
requiring immediate action (see FAR 91.3),
and should not hesitate to declare an emergency if appropriate.
Once you're safely on the ground after a
strike, FAA Advisory Circular AC 150/520032B offers guidance on wildlife strike
reporting procedures, including information on collecting and submitting remains
for identification. To promote reporting on
Form 5200-7, the FAA wildlife database is
now available on FAA.gov/mobile. The FAA

strongly encourages pilots to report a strike,
but any person who witnesses or finds evidence of a wildlife strike may choose to
report it. Reporting wildlife strikes will
update the wildlife advisories to other aircraft and trigger required actions for airport
managers, who have a duty to mitigate wildlife dangers.
After an aircraft sustains a strike, the
PIC must ensure that any appropriate aircraft inspections and airworthiness signoffs
are accomplished before further flights. Any
wildlife remains recovered may be sent
to the Smithsonian Institution's Feather
Identification Lab for species identification;
this is useful to maintain safety around airports and to aid aircraft manufacturers in
engineering safer designs.
In addition to being eligible for an
FAA wildlife strike report, strikes may
also require a report to the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Both
accidents and certain serious incidents
require immediate NTSB notification. The
strike may be an accident if it results in any
person suffering death or serious injury
or the aircraft receives certain substantial
damage as defined in NTSB 830.2. Even if
it's not an accident, the strike may require
NTSB reporting if it meets any of the serious
incident criteria in NTSB 830.5, including
flight control system malfunction or failure, or inability of any required flight crew
to perform normal duties because of injury.
If the strike does not result in an accident that is reportable to the NTSB, the pilot
may consider chirping about the event by

making a de-identified report through the
Aviation Safety Reporting System, administered by NASA. This may offer some
benefits for the pilot and for the national
airspace system. For more information on
wildlife strikes in general, visit FAA's wildlife strike fact sheet on FAA.gov.

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P R E S I D E N T, A O PA F I N A N C E
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106 | AOPA PILOT June 2020

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2020