Jan 15, 2009 11:17 pm US/Eastern
Birds Blamed In 1960 Fatal Crash Out Of Logan
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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This commercial plane crashed in 1960 after taking off from Logan Airport. Birds were blamed for the crash that killed 62 people.
Boston Herald
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Passengers in an inflatable raft move away from US Airway Flight 1549 Airbus A320 jet after it crashed in Hudson River.
AP
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Passengers are rescued from US Airway Flight 1549 Airbus A320 jet after it crashed in Hudson River, New York.
AP
Logan Airport is no stranger to plane crashes caused by birds.
In 1960, 62 passengers were killed on an Eastern Airlines flight out of Logan when a flock of starlings hit the aircraft.
The danger happens as the blades in the jet's engines are turning at very high speeds, which creates a vacuum that can literally suck up birds.
The impact can be so violent that the blades can break, which can lead to catastrophic engine failure.
The 1960 crash marks the country's deadliest bird strike.
Rescue diver John Goglia remembers that tragic day.
"It slowed down too much to maintain altitude, and it fell back down into the water, and a lot of people lost their lives in that accident," he recalled.
Goglia was a scuba diver who helped pull victims out of the Boston Harbor.
On Thursday, Goglia watched on television as rescue crews helped 146 passengers off a plane that went into the Hudson River.
"When I saw the airplane together I knew the outcome was going to be pretty good, but one could never expect to have everybody evacuate without serious injuries," Goglia said. "That was really a miracle."
Goglia later sat on the NTSB board – an aviation expert with special insight into the serious threat wildlife can pose.
Between 1990 and 2007, there were nearly 80,000 incidents involving birds. Some 9,000 of them resulted in damage, and 11 people were killed.
In Boston, MassPort has crews on the ground watching for birds and communicating with the control tower. Sometimes they even fire a shot gun to scare the birds away.
Goglia says airlines have made great progress improving the design of engines to better handle bird strikes. He says modern plane engines can take a bird weighing as much as eight pounds, but a flock of birds is much more difficult.
The FAA estimates bird strikes cost airlines in the U.S. more than $600 million and have caused more than 200 deaths worldwide since 1988.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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