Why Flying Into The Bismarck Airport Is Dangerous Right Now

As I was driving home on Yegen Road after work the other afternoon on the south end of the Bismarck Airport I witnessed something that showed me firsthand.

How dangerous it could be flying into or out of the Bismarck Airport right now.

It has nothing to do with security, terrorist activity, or airline safety. It has everything thing to do with what is also sharing the skies with these jets. Little missiles with feathers that are powerful enough to take down a 737 jet.

If you haven't figured out what I'm talking about yet, I'm speaking of a Canada Goose, and right now they are very thick around the Bismarck Airport.

You might remember that the Bismarck Aiport spent millions of dollars to move water off of airport property into Apple Creek to keep birds such as ducks and geese off of its land. Even though getting rid of the water has been accomplished, there's still a real danger of a collision between a flock of geese and a jet airplane because of all the birds feeding in agricultural fields around the airport.

Why is right now the worst time for this around the Bismarck Airport?

Because of the cold weather a couple of weeks back, a large number of migrating geese from Canada have moved into the Bismarck Mandan area. They roost or spend their nights and middays on the river in town.

However, early in the morning and again in the late afternoon, these geese move out to feed in agricultural fields (mostly corn fields this time of year), and many of those fields just happened to be near the Bismarck Airport or in line with the airport.

This past Tuesday afternoon I witnessed a United jet take off from the Bismarck Airport that was climbing upon take off that had not only a flock of Canada Geese above them, but below them as well. I'm not saying it was an extremely close call, but it made me nervous to watch.

If just one of those geese were to get sucked into the engine it could bring it down.

You remember the movie "Sully" right? According to Field Musem, here's why geese and other birds can be so dangerous to jets.

That's why flying an early morning flight or late afternoon flight could be more dangerous because geese are more active in the vicinity of the airport.

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Gallery Credit: Hannah Lang