Birdstrike: Behind the US Air Crash

Talk about strange timing: About three weeks ago I handed in a 3,500-word feature on the danger of birdstrikes--airplanes hitting birds--to the editors at Audubon Magazine. "The numbers keep going up, and the FAA is just clueless," one veteran pilot told me. "The airline industry doesn't want to get involved because they're afraid they might have to spend money. Nobody will get involved until we have a big catastrophe." 
    Enter catastrophe. 
    Early indications are that yesterday's crash of a US Airways jet on New York's Hudson River was caused by a birdstrike. Two, in fact. Canada geese. Took out the engines.
    Aubudon is scrambling to put the piece up on its web site, and it should be there any minute now. I'll link to it when it's live. In the meantime, I put together a short piece for the New York Times Op-Ed page, which they're running on their "Room for Debate" web site, which picks up where the printed page leaves off. As soon as the Audubon story goes up, I'll post more photos and videos of birdstrikes. Amazing stuff, really.