Katie Couric's Notebook: Bird Strikes
(AP Photo/Edouard H. R. Gluck)
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says if the White House can release memos about interrogating terror suspects, it's hard to justify sealing records about birds.
These collisions are a real concern. They've more than quadrupled since 1990 to more than 1,700 a year. But federal officials were afraid that if passengers knew which airports had the most bird strikes, they might avoid flying there, and that airports might stop reporting incidents.
The solution is not secrecy - it is to make sure these accidents are reported and to implement systems that can warn pilots when flocks are nearby. Keeping passengers in the dark about safety risks is for the birds.
