Although rare relative to the total number of flights, wildlife strikes to civil aircraft increased more than nine fold from 1990 to 2019, according to a joint report by the FAA and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The number of wildlife strikes reported annually to the FAA increased from 1,850 in 1990 to a record 17,228 in 2019. While the overall number of strikes rose dramatically, the number of reported damaging strikes increased only slightly after 2010 and remained below the record of 743 damaging strikes recorded in 2000, the report found.

Take a look at the interactive graph below to see the change - 

Factors contributing to the threat of aircraft collisions with wildlife are increasing populations of large birds and increased air traffic by quieter, turbofan-powered aircraft, the agencies said. The annual cost of wildlife strikes to the civil industry in 2019 was projected to be 116,984 hours of aircraft downtime and $205 million in direct and other monetary losses.

Read the full article - Wildlife Strikes To Aircraft Rise Nine Fold Since 1990