That's how that plane ended up landing in the river; a bird had gotten into those side things and it had to crash land.

Posted by: Anna | January 29, 2009 01:54 PM

why scapegoat all of them when there could be humane alternative for all. don't kill them all

Posted by: roxanne | January 29, 2009 06:22 PM

soooo... is this trying to say that pilots intentionally aim for birds??

Posted by: Meg | January 29, 2009 10:37 PM

Ok, this is just silly. Do you actually think the captain meant to fly directly into those geese? What PETA does is great, but come on - it was an accident. There was no creulty or abuse intended.

Posted by: Hope | January 30, 2009 03:37 PM

yes the piliot obviously hit the birds on purpose not knowing it would harm the engines

Posted by: thomas | January 30, 2009 04:32 PM

1st off those "side things" are called engines. 2nd off I'm pretty sure the birds flew into the engines and the pilot could not prevent it from happening. So, how can you be humane about something you did not know it was going to happen?

Posted by: Cortney | January 30, 2009 04:54 PM

So I might not be understanding, but because flying kills birds I shouldn't fly any more? How should I go see my mother on the east coast? Train... oh wait they hit deer some times. By horse... oh wait you don't approve of that. By boat... oh that probably kills fish. By car... no I will probably hit any where from a field mouse to a black bear.
Isn't there some point where you have to be some what reasonable. I'm all for proper treatment of animals, but shouldn't you be reasonable at some point?

Posted by: Michael | January 30, 2009 05:18 PM

Somebody really needs to put a stop to this. It's bad enough that the birds get killed, but people actually blame them for it. They cannot fathom how "humans are invading the skies, whih is the birds natural environment." This was actually written in my loal newspaper. I think the birds are trying to tell us something.

Posted by: Jessica | January 31, 2009 12:06 PM

Yeah, this is admittantly a little funny, but also very ignorant.

Pilots don't try to fly into birds - if anything they try to avoid them because of the sheer amount of damage they can do to the fuselage and engines.

Also, any citation on the "fact" that the birdstrikes mostly consist of federally protected species?

Posted by: Travelsonic | January 31, 2009 01:00 PM

As long as there are airplanes, there will be accidents caused by birds. My ex worked in the Air Force fixing planes and complained over and over about how he hated it when he had to "clean birds out of engines". The people flying the planes don't go into a flock on purpose - they have no control over where the birds go.

Posted by: Sally | January 31, 2009 05:41 PM

To the trolls: 1st this is a cartoon by Jeff Corriveau and NOT a PETA campaign.
So why don't you all retire your high horse to a sanctuary, k?

Second, we need to all reconsider our impact on the natural world, and realize that it is NOT the responisibility of the natural world to accomodate our desires but for us to live within the confines of the natural world.

The United States has a wonderful train system which took decades to build, but today it remains almost completely unused. And instead highways are EVERYWHERE destroying the natural world and the environment, and people fly EVERYWHERE.
Airplane travel is ridiculously expensive, polluting and destructive.

As for animals killed by trains the operative word is "sometimes" but there are planes everywhere in the sky, just because spoiled citizens want to be able to "visit their mommy in the east coast" and be back in time to watch the next episode of Lost on their own couch.

We are still humans living in the natural world, and what we will need to accept in this next decade is that travelling hundreds of miles SHOULD take time, and travelling accross the world should not be something that we can do in only a few days.
Unless someone develops a transporter, faster will never be better.

Oh and have you heard of the internet? You can speak with your mother on a webcam, for FREE and without killing anyone in the process, nor creating any pollution.

WAKE UP! You are not the centre of the universe, and nature does not exist to serve you!

Posted by: Antoine | February 1, 2009 10:00 AM

He didnt try to hit those geese i know PETA really likes controversy but really? he wouldnt have even been able to see them pilots cant even SEE out of the cockpit...the man is a hero and saved hundreds of life this went a little far PETA, though i am a PETA supporter and a vegan too

Posted by: vicky | February 1, 2009 11:08 AM

People fly for convenience. It isn't necessary.

Likewise,a lot of people eat meat for convenience. It would definately be much easier for me to eat meat.

Posted by: brad | February 1, 2009 04:08 PM

Who gets to define "reasonable"? That's an empty word as it is.

I think the question is, how do we prevent this?

Posted by: Louche | February 2, 2009 12:45 AM

Much more alarming is the many many birds killed by wind turbins in the name of "green power".

Posted by: Joanna | February 2, 2009 03:16 PM

I agree with Antoine (Feb.1 10 AM)
The pilot may not have had any control over hitting them, but in none of his statements did he mention the sad fate of the geese. Though it's great that he saved all the humans, lives were lost that day.

Posted by: lynda downie | February 3, 2009 12:47 AM

This is amazing to me. This pilot, a hero to all on board and to the families of those on board, is having his actions tarnished because he hit two geese.
Somethings in this world are unavoidable. The geese were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing more!

Posted by: Kurt K | February 3, 2009 10:47 AM

What about the hundreds of people that are killed on the roads each year? Surely we should focus on trying to prevent the death of our own species before planning our flight paths around that of the birds.

Posted by: Redhead | November 9, 2009 03:50 AM