FOD News Roundup – June 30, 2015

Rotary FOD

June 10: Keep those helipads clean, folks. Authorities in Fiji believe that foreign object debris damaged the rotor blades of a helicopter during a landing operation, causing it to crash.

helicopter

 

Drone FOD

May 18: Predictions that small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will create debris problems have come true, at least in the Philippines. A teenaged hobbyist lost his small drone, only for it to turn up as debris on the runway’s edge at Ninoy Aquino International Airport

Quadcopter. Image: U.S. Air Force.

Quadcopter. Image: U.S. Air Force.

New FAA Video

150,000 strikes! That’s how many the Federal Aviation Administration has cataloged since it first opened the Wildlife Strike Database in 1990. Watch this FAA video with updated information on the database. This is the second in the agency’s new Airport Safety Information video series.
FAA video - wildlife database

 

Sky Lanterns

June 4: Officials in Mumbai, India, are raising security concerns over the increasing popularity of airborne sky lanterns, especially during holidays, near Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport

sky lanterns

 

Keeping Fighters in the Air

May 29: Pay a visit to the F-15 functional test team, the ground maintenance unit responsible for preparing fighter jets for test flights.

USAF functional test team

 

Bird Strikes Increasing

May 18: India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation reports that birds strikes in that country have almost doubled over the past four years.

bird strike

 

Moo!

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has ordered all 81 airports to take measures to prevent people and livestock from crossing runways.

cow

 

Cold War Bird Strikes

Here’s an interesting 1980’s-era training video for US Air Force pilots, introducing them to a basic understanding of bird strike prevention. Includes incidents, pilot interviews and statistics.

USAF 1980's FOD video

 

Moments in FOD History: Learjet Crash

On February 26, 1973, multiple bird strikes crashed a Learjet after taking off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in DeKalb County, Georgia. Seven people died and an eighth suffered severe fuel burns.

Peachtree Airport birds