Open Bird Season at Balad

With the help of volunteers, the USAF’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Flight Safety Office reduced the number of bird strikes on aircraft by 30 percent at Iraq’s Balad Air Base in November. They accomplished this through the Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard program, which uses awareness and proactivity to reduce the number of bird-strike threats against aviation assets. "We are here preserving the Air Force's combat capabilities," said Master Sgt. Brian Saunders, a flight safety office member, noting that last year alone $42 million in damage was done to Air Force aircraft from bird strikes. Helping Sgt. Saunders alleviate the avian threat is the ‘BASH Militia’ armed with pellet rifles. For larger birds, like ducks near ponds, the team uses a 12-gauge shotgun filled with clay shots. "The clay shots don't go as far," said Sgt. Saunders, “so there is almost no chance of a ricochet hitting anything other than the intended target.” The bird-strike threat is very real. "Birds have been known to take down aircraft and destroy engines, and as a result, kill people," Sgt. Saunders noted.