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2004 Summary Report - Bird Stikes to Canadian Aircraft Section 1 - Introduction

2004 Highlights
  • A total of 1146 incidents were reported to the Aerodromes and Air Navigation Branch in 2004. Of these, 1131 occurred at Canadian sites and 7 occurred in the United States of America.
  • Of the incidents reported, 583 did not identify the bird involved. The types of bird most often involved were shorebirds (40.6%), followed by perching birds (36.4%), raptors (10.9%), and waterfowl (6.8%).
  • The month with the highest number of strikes was August (22.7%), followed by September (18.5%), and July (13.4%). The time of day with the most incidents was between 8 A.M. and 11 A.M.
  • Sixty-two percent of incidents with a reported altitude occurred at ground level. Sixteen percent of the incidents with a reported altitude occurred at altitudes between 1 and 200 feet AGL. Fifty-three percent of incidents had no report of strike altitude.
  • The aircraft most involved in strikes, irrespective of the number of aircraft movements, were De Havilland Dash-8s (24.8%), Airbus A320s (17.7%), Boeing 737s (13.5%), and Airbus A319s (10.9%).
  • The parts of the aircraft most often struck were the nose, windshield, fuselage, wings and engines.
  • Thirty-six percent of all strikes to the engine resulted in damage, thirty-one percent of all strikes to the wings resulted in damage, seventeen percent of all strikes to the tail resulted in damage, and less than five percent of all strikes to the fuselage, windshield, or nose resulted in damage.
  • The types of engine most often damaged were turbofans (9 damaging incidents).

Note: This report is based on bird strike data supplied to Transport Canada by the various sources listed in the introduction, and therefore reflects the nature of the information furnished as well as the interpretation provided by the individuals who prepared the report.

Date modified:
2010-05-03