TAMPA — Mostly desolate, uninhabited acres of grass and deep-sided ditches flank the sides of Tampa International Airport’s take-off and landing strips. There are no lush wetlands or manicured flower beds alongside the tarmac for airline passengers to enjoy. Just an occasional lunching armadillo or wayward great blue heron or cattle egret trekking through the bare fields looking for bugs. There is a reason for that. Birds and airplanes are not compatible. Bird strikes and other wildlife strikes to aircraft cause over $900 million in damage to U.S. civil and military aviation each year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Over 250 people have been killed worldwide...
↧