Deadly collisions: how airports try (and fail) to keep birds out of plane engines

Bird strikes cause fatal crashes and cost airlines money. Experts have tactics for chasing away these errant fowl

My tone wavered between enthusiasm and concern. Is that a great black-backed gull," I asked.

It was a cold December morning, and I was cruising along the interior roads of Boston's Logan international airport in a white pickup truck. At the wheel was Jeff Turner, who, among other duties, oversees efforts to control wildlife at the airport, including making sure that errant gulls and other birds don't stray into flight paths and cause an accident. He glanced toward the harbor and confirmed that a lone great black-backed was indeed mixed in with a few herring gulls.