Posts about stuff relating to airports
On the Road to Recovery?
ChatGPT suggested I write a post about the aviation industry’s recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. Still, this week's news suggests that this road to recovery remains bumpy. But I do love data and numbers, so let’s see how we are going.
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #3
It’s time for another update on the impact of COVID-19 traffic downturns on wildlife strikes. My first (and updated) post was looking at the initial months of the pandemic and the second looked at the northern summer period but it has been a big three months since I’ve looked at these numbers.
And in that time, someone published some statistics that don’t exactly match mine!
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #2
It’s been a couple of months since my first attempt at tracking bird strike rates following the COVID-19 traffic downturn. At that time, viral infection rates in Europe had settled down, Australia was coming down from its second wave and even the US seemed to be cresting its second phase. On the aviation safety front, bird strike rates were showing a pretty clear sign of exceeding the 5-year average.
So how are things looking three months on?
Image credit: Alan Wilson (via Wikipedia)
Safety Performance Indicators: A False Dichotomy?
Everyone knows that when it comes to safety performance indicators, you want them to be leading rather than lagging. We usually start with lagging because they are easier to spot but we’re pushed to find, track, measure and analyse their much superior cousins, the lead indicators. But is it that simple? Of course not...
(UPDATED) COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #1
UPDATE: What I thought was happening with wildlife strike rates during the COVID-19 downturn was not quite the case. I had a little issue with the time taken for reports to be included in the FAA Wildlife Strike Database and thankfully, this issue was picked up by a helpful colleague. See the details within.
Image credit: Azim Islam (via Pexels)
Heads Up: Watch Out for Wildlife (Updated)
No need to rehash the current situation, aviation is hurting and traffic numbers are going down.
So why post about wildlife strikes? With traffic down, we should see less strikes, shouldn’t we? Maybe not…
Over the last couple of months, I have been doing some deep diving into the FAA’s wildlife strike database. It is an aerodrome safety nerd’s paradise. There is so much data and a little crunching can reveal some very interesting things.
I want to share one of these insights with you in light our current circumstances.
Image credit: (cc) Quintin Gellar on Pexels