Why Aren't Jet Engines Equipped With Screens To Prevent Bird Strikes?

Soon after US Airways flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport on January 15, 2009, a flock of geese were sucked into the engines and Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger had to land the plane in the Hudson River. Those of us who remember the news or saw the 2016 movie "Sully" starring Tom Hanks often wonder what can be done to protect plane engines from incoming birds. Would screens help? The New York Times looked into this in the days after the flight 1549 bird strike. According to former National Transportation Safety Board member and aircraft mechanic Jon Goglia, chicken wire would not offer any protection from bird strikes. 

He compared a bird to a bullet, saying "The problem is the ability to withstand an eight-pound object moving at 250 miles per hour." But installing screens to keep big birds out was not an option. Air Transport Association VP of operations and safety Basil Barimo said, "Anything strong enough to take that kind of impact would weigh so much that you can't operate it." Goglia added that a heavier screen could break and then be sucked into the engine, causing further damage. A screen would also produce turbulence in the air behind it, disrupting the smooth air that jet engines need to generate lift.

In an interview with Yahoo, industry expert Kristy Kiernan stated that the rate of bird strikes in the U.S. was 2.83 per 10,000 departures between 2009 and 2018. While bird strikes happen more often than people would expect, she said only 2-8% result in aircraft damage. "Usually, almost always they're inconsequential. The airplane is designed to be able to withstand a bird impact. However, sometimes the circumstance is more than what the engine is designed to ingest, or it causes some particular damage." 

Bird strikes are more likely to happen during takeoff, cruising, and landing due to engine speed and/or reduced distance from the ground. While bird strikes don't always take out airplane engines, they can lead to engine fires. But this shouldn't happen with every incident. It took 14 years, but the Hudson River bird strike incident led to a strengthening of Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) testing standards to make sure engines could withstand impacts from larger birds. Luckily, airplanes are still a safe form of transportation, birds or not.