Details about this story

• Source: National Public Radio
• Date: April 27, 2009
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Robert Benincasa , Alyson Hurt
• Topics: Safety , Transportation
• Data Types: Federal Data , Mapping
• Description/Excerpt: Airplanes landing and taking off at airports in Sacramento, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Denver have been the most likely in the nation to hit birds, according to an NPR analysis of newly released data from the Federal Aviation Administration. Two popular vacation-spot airports in Florida also have high rates of damaging bird strikes — Fort Myers and Orlando. NPR combined the FAA's wildlife-strike reports with airport activity figures to calculate airport "strike rates," an industry measure that is not publicly available and that standardizes bird strikes according to the amount of traffic at an airport.
• Database or Graphic: Go to site (org/news/graphics/2009/apr/airports/)