WASHINGTON–Airplane collisions with birds have more than doubled at 13 major U.S. airports since 2000, according to Federal Aviation Administration data released for the first time yesterday.

The FAA list of wildlife strikes, published on the Internet, details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990, including 28 cases since 2000 in which collisions with birds or other animals such as deer on the runway were so severe that the aircraft was considered destroyed.

But even the FAA estimates its voluntary reporting system captures only about 20 per cent of all wildlife strikes and some airports and airlines do a better job of reporting than others.

Topping the list of airports where planes were either substantially damaged or destroyed by birds since 2000 were John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, with at least 30 such accidents, and Sacramento International Airport in California with at least 28 accidents. Kennedy, the sixth-busiest airport in the United States, is located near wetlands that attract birds, and Sacramento International, the 40th-busiest, abuts farms with crops that draw birds and sits along the Pacific flyway used by migratory birds.

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