William Langewiesche has a brilliant piece in the current Vanity Fair (“Anatomy of a Miracle”) about the landing of that USAir flight on the Hudson River after the Airbus ingested about a dozen Canada geese just after takeoff. I think it prints out at 18 pages or something like that, so refill your coffee cup first. For being an article about something that is typically not-so-funny, Langewiesche certainly has his sardonic moments; here’s one from early in the article, just to give you a taste:
Objective observers of the hazards do not fault geese alone. The experts at assigning blame are two employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Richard Dolbeer and Sandra Wright, who work out of an office in Sandusky, Ohio, where they preside over the Federal Aviation Administration’s National Wildlife Strike Database. Their records from 1990 through 2007 indicate that aircraft in the United States (and some U.S. airliners abroad) collided with 369 conclusively identified species of birds. The birds included loons, grebes, pelicans, cormorants, herons, storks, egrets, swans, ducks, vultures, hawks, eagles, cranes, sandpipers, seagulls, pigeons, cuckoos, owls, turkeys, blackbirds, crows, chickadees, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, mockingbirds, parrots, and a single parakeet. Over the same period, airplanes officially collided with bats on 253 occasions. Furthermore, they had 760 official collisions with deer, 252 with coyotes, 182 with rabbits, 120 with rodents including porcupines, 74 with turtles, 59 with opossums, 16 with armadillos, 14 with alligators, 7 with iguanas, 4 with moose, 2 with caribou, and one each with a wild pig and a donkey. There was also an official collision with a fish, though the fish was in the grasp of an osprey at the time.
Dawg saw Gran Torino this weekend, and gives it Dawg Pound certification. Thank you Mr. Eastwood, one alpha male to another.
