Precise Flight says it's system can cut risk 30 percent or more

By Eric Rucker, KTVZ.COM

Thursday's Hudson River ditching of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 from New York's LaGuardia airport captured the attention of the world Thursday.

Fortunately, it did not take any of the 155 lives on board.

But could this incident, caused by birds flying into the plane's engines, have been avoided?

And could the answer be as simple as something we interact with every day?

How about lights - more specifically, pulsating lights?

"Essentially they are Boeing 747 lamps, because that's the largest we would ever encounter,"  Scott Philiben, vice president of Precise Flight Inc. in Bend, said Thursday, pointing to a row of lights incased in a metal cage.

Whether they are bigger for commercial flights  are, or smaller ones for jets, the concept is the same: pulsating lights to let the birds know a plane is headed its way.

And while the pulsation part originally was for energy conservation, it turns out, that's what makes these lights work as a bird-plane collision-avoidance system.

"It turns out to be a color change to the light that is some what perceptible to us, but according to the researchers is very visible to birds," Philiben said. 

It's because birds just don't see in the light wavelengths humans do. When the light pulsates and different colors are picked up, the bird knows a threat is coming.  

Philiben says his lights are initially seen by birds from a plane about two miles away.

And he says the companies he's sold the lights to have had a reduction of plane bird-collisions from 30 percent and up.

So given Thursday's bird strike, could Precise Flight's lights have prevented it?

Philiben says probably not, given the time and conditions.

"They work better in higher contrast and are more effective in the night and the morning, or in cloudy conditions than it is on a bright day," he said. 

However, most bird-plane collisions happen during dusk, dawn or at night.

And because of our location, don't expect these lights to be on planes leaving from our Central Oregon airports any time soon.

"It isn't to say that every intermountain area is low-risk, because Sacramento is particularly more hazardous from a bird-strike standpoint," Philiben said. "But (Redmond's) Roberts Field is a very risk-averse airport to leave from."

Redmond Municipal Airport Manager Carrie Novick agrees, saying airports closer to large bodies of water have more bird issues.

"By trying to eliminate places where birds nest and feed, by the trees and other vegetation that you plant in and around the area, airports are trying to minimize this type of contact," Novick said. "But birds fly, and you will never be able to eliminate the possibility of bird strikes."

Right now, Precise Flight says most of their lights are on airlines based in Australia and New Zealand, where bird strikes are most prevalent because the majority of the planes take off and land near the ocean.

On average, a commercial plane hits a bird without major damage three times a year.