WASHINGTON (AP) – Government researchers warned 10 years ago that changes were needed in helicopter designs to prevent birds from crashing through windshields and disabling pilots. Today, dangerous bird strikes are on the rise, but there are still no safety standards to protect 90 percent of the nation’s helicopters.
“We’re getting more severe damage, more frequent cases of birds penetrating the windshield and the risk of pilot incapacitation that could cause fatalities for everybody there,” Gary Roach, an FAA helicopter safety engineer, told a recent meeting of FAA’s aviation rulemaking advisory committee.
In 2013, there were 204 reported helicopter bird strikes, a 68 percent increase from 2009 when there were 121 reports and an increase of more than 700 percent since the early 2000s, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Last March, for example, a Dallas police helicopter was searching for a capsized boat when there was a loud explosion and wind began rushing through a huge hole in the windshield. The pilot, Sgt. Todd Limerick, put a hand over one eye, which was imbedded with shards of Plexiglass. His nose was broken and blood covered his face. But he kept his other hand on the controls until the co-pilot, Cpl. Laurent Lespagnol, took over and landed the aircraft.
“My first thought was that we had been shot. My second was the engine blew up,” Lespagnol said in an interview. It wasn’t until they had landed that they found the cause wedged between the cockpit seats – a 3-pound American coot, a duck-like bird.