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Unfriendly skies

Now 700 Canadian geese have been rounded up and killed so that they would not collide with planes.

To begin with, those birds were living on federally protected land, the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge. Why was an airport ever built so close to such a sanctuary? That was not a very practical thing to have done at all. While it is very possible that birds can, and have, had collisions with planes, it is just as possible and likely that there could be near collisions on the airport runways between planes, which would have nothing to do with birds, but would be human error.

In 1977, there was a tragic collision between two passenger planes on a runway in the Canary Islands. It was human error and no birds were involved there. Over 500 people were killed due to human error.

Is it the goal of the government to destroy the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge? There must be another, more humane, way to reduce the threat of plane-bird collisions other than killing them The skies must be safe for both people and birds.

 

John Amato

Fresh Meadows