By John Amato
It is so very important to continue to address the issue of birds colliding with planes, because this is an issue that will never totally be rectified. While we certainly do not want to see collisions between birds and planes that could result in passenger injuries or deaths, we just simply cannot start rounding up and killing hundreds of ducks, geese, seagulls, swans, falcons, red-tailed hawks and other birds that might potentially collide with planes.
One thing that everybody seems to forget is that the Wildlife Sanctuary next to Kennedy Airport is federally protected. There are thousands of birds who pass through that sanctuary annually on their seasonal trips back and forth throughout the migrating periods. Whoever decided to build an airport on land adjacent to it more than 70 or so years ago certainly was not thinking properly.
There has to be some general consensus between Port Authority and wildlife officials on how to reduce the potential for additional bird/plane collisions.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
