Results tagged “airlinesafety”

Port Authority officials continue to fight off the terror threat posed by Canada geese, employing techniques from falconry to to shotguns to killing their eggs. With Captain Sully being given a hero's welcome back to the skies as he returned to work this week, it seemed time that we better check in on the villain that was disposed of, lest they come back bigger and stronger than ever. Officials from the PA say they are doing just that, not losing any momentum after over 1,000 were "rounded up" this summer.

Yesterday, the pilot of a Continental Airlines flight from Brussels to Newark died mid-flight, and a cardiologist who tried to revive Captain Craig Lennell believes he died from a heart attack. (An autopsy will determine cause of death.) Dr. Julien Struyven, who was a passenger on the flight, said, "It's a wonderful death. You die on duty. You don't feel anything." Two co-pilots took over the flight and safely landed the plane, which carried 247 passengers.

The Post, which basically called war on Canada geese after Flight 1549, continues to cover the geese culling/killing, reporting that 300 geese have been killed on Monday and Tuesday: "Death squads targeting Canada geese before they bring down any more commercial jets launched an amphibious assault on Fort Totten Park in Queens -- where they used an armada of kayaks to herd the flying menaces to the shore. Workers from the US Department of Agriculture and city Parks Department then rounded up gaggles of the pesky honkers, put them in crates and drove them on a flatbed truck to a secret location at Kennedy Airport. Officials wouldn't say if they were gassed there or transported to another location to meet their doom." And there are pictures, too. The city and Port Authority are trying to eliminate at least 2,000 geese from the area, in hopes of improving airline safety. Protesters gathered outside the PA's offices in Manhattan; one said, "This is a terrible precedent to set, that anytime there is a problem with wildlife — to just slaughter them is not a way to solve the issue."

The Humane Society of the United States has weighed in on New York City's—and the Port Authority's—plan to cull/kill/gas 2,000 geese. The city perceives the geese as a threat to airline safety, given that geese took down US Airways Flight 1549 (Mayor Bloomberg reiterated on his radio show, "We're trying to strike a balance. In the safety of flying, the public trumps the rights of the geese"), but the Humane Society says, "The best and most lasting solution to secure the safety of air travelers as well as preserve wildlife is to reduce the attractiveness of airport-vicinity open space to animals such as waterfowl and to limit access to other creatures."