Planes aren't the only thing in the sky.... or apparently on the ground.

This is a Digiatl Humanities project. It is created using open data published by the FAA. This data can be accessed here. The data is collected from a form that is filled out at the end of a flight if an incedent has occured. It isn't clear if the data is collected for flights at their final destination even if the strike happens in another location, such as mid flight in another state but land in Pennsylvania.

The website was created to showcase my abilty to analyze a dataset, my grasp of digital humanities tools, and my web development skill. I used an open bootstrap layout for the base of the website, Jupyter notebooks for the data analysis using Python. My jupyter notebooks and the website are all hosted on Github, with links to the repository and the notebooks at the end of the project. Both the button below and the navigation menu on the right will take you there.

Supporting Documentation

Animals Struck

Who Thinks They Can Beat a Plane?

While not every animal that is struck by a plan can be identified, there is an attempt to learn what speciese is killed as many times as possible. This is done in a variety of ways, some of which can be identified by sight, while others are sent off to the Smithsonian for identification. I was shocked to learn that no matter where in the United States a bird is struck its remains are always sent all the way to the Smithsonian. I did not learn why this is the case, as the dataset did not indicate a reason, merely that it was done, but I would be curious to learn when and why this practice started.

Top 10 Named Contenders

These are the top 10 idenfied animals, all are birds. The top two data points are actually unidentified small and medium, but I felt showing the top 10 named species would be more significant. To see the full list of both birds and mammals, click on the images below the visualization to see a table showing every species listed in order.

Here are the complete tables of all animals struck.

Birds

Despite their small size, many birds think why not!

Animal Name	Challengers
Unknown bird - small	1223
Unknown bird - medium	887
European starling	405
Gulls	343
Mourning dove	300
Barn swallow	208
Unknown bird	202
Bank swallow	199
Sparrows	187
American kestrel	174
Killdeer	126
Canada goose	113
Ring-billed gull	112
Unknown bird - large	103
Tree swallow	97
Swallows	96
Blackbirds	82
Horned lark	80
Red-tailed hawk	76
Hawks	71
American robin	55
Rock pigeon	52
Eastern meadowlark	48
Chimney swift	48
Red-winged blackbird	38
Brown-headed cowbird	38
Ducks	33
Big brown bat	24
Geese	23
American crow	21
Mallard	20
Perching birds (y)	20
Great blue heron	19
Microbats	19
Cedar waxwing	15
Northern rough-winged swallow	12
Common grackle	10
Common nighthawk	10
Crows	10
Peregrine falcon	10
Turkey vulture	9
Bald eagle	9
Herring gull	9
Owls	9
Grasshopper sparrow	8
Osprey	8
Cliff swallow	7
Little brown bat	7
Ducks, geese, swans	7
Great horned owl	7
Swainson's thrush	7
Dark-eyed junco	7
Savannah sparrow	7
Eastern kingbird	6
Song sparrow	6
Sandpipers, curlews, phalaropes, allies	6
Short-eared owl	6
Wild turkey	6
Snowy owl	6
Finches	6
Northern flicker	6
Cooper's hawk	6
Unknown bird or bat	6
House sparrow	6
Common snapping turtle	5
Laughing gull	5
White-throated sparrow	5
Merlin	5
American goldfinch	5
Gray catbird	4
Wilson's snipe	4
Green-winged teal	4
Great egret	4
Foxes	4
Belted kingfisher	4
American golden-plover	4
Ovenbird	4
Northern mockingbird	4
Snow goose	4
Yellow-bellied sapsucker	4
Orioles	3
Eastern red bat	3
Upland sandpiper	3
Eastern bluebird	3
American coot	3
Semipalmated plover	3
Perching birds (z)	3
Hoary bat	3
Pectoral sandpiper	3
Wrens	3
Double-crested cormorant	3
Raptors: Hawks, eagles, vultures, kites, osprey, f	3
Common loon	3
Snow bunting	2
New World wood-warblers	2
Red-shouldered hawk	2
Yellow-bellied flycatcher	2
Pigeons	2
Unknown terrestrial mammal	2
Yellow-rumped warbler	2
Barn owl	2
House wren	2
Brown thrasher	2
Swamp sparrow	2
Wood duck	2
Ruby-crowned kinglet	2
Eastern cottontail	2
Starlings	2
Nashville warbler	2
House finch	2
Palm warbler	2
Vesper bats	2
Bonaparte's gull	2
American woodcock	2
Terns	2
Baltimore oriole	2
Bobolink	2
Least sandpiper	2
Eastern phoebe	2
Dunlin	2
Field sparrow	2
Brown pelican	2
Silver-haired bat	2
Hermit thrush	2
Great black-backed gull	2
Purple martin	2
American pipit	2
Northern harrier	2
New World Vultures	1
Tundra swan	1
Barred owl	1
Northern pintail	1
Blackpoll warbler	1
Chestnut-sided warbler	1
Cackling goose	1
Wood thrush	1
Ring-necked duck	1
Nelson's sparrow	1
Common yellowthroat	1
Black-capped chickadee	1
Pigeons, doves	1
Sharp-shinned hawk	1
American black duck	1
Red-eyed vireo	1
Sanderling	1
Painted turtle	1
Indigo bunting	1
Egrets	1
Black-bellied plover	1
Caspian tern	1
Semipalmated sandpiper	1
Vesper sparrow	1
Prairie falcon	1
American wigeon	1
Green heron	1
Yellow warbler	1
American tree sparrow	1
American redstart	1
Lesser yellowlegs	1
Ruddy duck	1
Rose-breasted grosbeak	1
Blackburnian warbler	1
Woodpeckers	1
Carolina wren	1
Cave swallow	1
Red-bellied woodpecker	1
Shorebirds	1
Fish crow	1
Chipping sparrow	1
Broad-winged hawk	1
Pond slider	1
Bats	1
Blue jay	1
Redhead	1

Mammals

If we thought deer in headlights on a road was interesting...

Animal Name	Challengers
White-tailed deer	72
Woodchuck	25
Red fox	22
Coyote	12
Striped skunk	10
Virginia opossum	8
Turtles	5
Raccoon	4
Eastern box turtle	1
Mink	1

When the Animals Fought Back

Damage to Aircraft

I was happy to see that the majority of birds did not do any damage to aircraft when struck. While I do feel bad, as often the bird is killed, but it does not indicate that many aircraft are harmed. Even when the aricraft are, it isn't major. Below shows the occurances of damage. The bubbles are interactive and will show exact numbers if you hover over them, and those without labels will show their label in the tooltip as well.

Where do they Happen?

The Scene of the Battle.

Below is a map that shows the locaiton of each airport in the state of Pennsylvania. This shows the airport name and identifier. I could not input the strike data into the tooltip, so that information is listed below the map in a table.

Battleground

Here is a list of all the airports organized by strike count.

Airport Name	Challengers
PHILADELPHIA INTL	2267
PITTSBURGH INTL ARPT	1611
HARRISBURG INTL	892
LEHIGH VALLEY INTL	432
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTL	192
ERIE INTL ARPT-TOM RIDGE FIELD	147
UNIVERSITY PARK ARPT	96
ALLEGHENY COUNTY ARPT	83
READING REGNL ARPT/CARL A SPAATZ FIELD	83
NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA ARPT	57
LANCASTER ARPT (PA)	40
WILLIAMSPORT REGIONAL ARPT	33

When do these strikes happen?

What Month?

Below is a graph displaying the count per month. I assumed, but wanted to confirm that during migratory periods strikes would increase. My suspicion was confirmed, it seems the peak here is August. Which while a bit early, it still during a migration period. The bar chart below shows this change. The sizes of the bars are not perfectly indicative, as they get both wider and taller as they increased. If you hover over each bar it will display the exact number if you are interested in seeing just how many in each month.

What Time of Day?

Similar to the month, I was interested to see if time of day effected strikes. To my surprise, I found daytime to be the most common. I had guessed that it would have been dawn or dusk, since visibility would be lower for both planes and animals, but I guess more are not as active during these times. I also figured that the window of time that is considered dawn or dusk may be indicative of why the numebrs were lower.

When during the flight do these tend to happen?

Below are the two categories I could not place in the flight phase graphic

Flight Phase	Challengers
Local	9
Unknown	1

Stages of a Flight:

While some may know what each stage means, not everyone is. So I included here some basic definitions in case someone needed to know.

Taxi: The aircraft is moving on the ground prior to takeoff and after landing.
Takeoff: From the application of takeoff power, through rotation and to an altitude of 35 feet above runway elevation.
Departure: From the end of the Takeoff subphase to the first prescribed power reduction, or until reaching 1,000 feet above runway elevation.
Climb: Any time the aircraft has a positive rate of climb for an extended period of time.
Cruise: The time period following the initial climb during which the aircraft is in level flight.
Descent: Any time before the approach during which the aircraft has a negative rate of climb for an extended period of time.
Landing Roll: Any major rotation during the Descent subphase of the flight.
Approach: The time from 1,000 feet above runway elevation, to the beginning of the runway's landing flare.
Landing: From the beginning of the landing flare until aircraft exits the landing runway, comes to a stop on the runway, or when power is applied for takeoff in the case of a touch-and-go landing.

Pilots Remarks

The form also contained an open remarks field. I felt this would contain some interesting insight. Since this was open, it could contain anything the pilot or whomever reported the incident felt compelled to include. I used Voyant Tools to analyze the text within this field. Sadly, there was nothing that stood out too much. As this is a technical document, it mostly pertained to where the strike happened, or other important information. Below is a wordcloud of the most frequently occuring words and abbreviations. In addition to creating the wordcloud I also did look at some text analysis of the docuement, but nothing really stood out.

Documentation

I sought to use only free and if possible open source software for this project.
This project is purely for academix purposes, and is uploaded on GitHub using an MIT liscense.
Please feel free to use this for your own purposes.

Below are links to all software I used, and links to images and other necessary information.

Digital Tools

Data can be found at FAA Data
Jupyter Notbooks can be accessed by downloading and using Anaconda
My notebooks are found here: Pure Python and Python and PANDAS Analysis
Bar Chart, Box Visualization, and Bubble Visualizations created using Tableau Public
Circular Time of Day Graph was created using RAW Graphs
Map was imported through ArcGIS Online
Word Cloud was created using Voyant Tools
Images were edited using GIMP

Citations and Other Resources

To shortcut making the html tables I used this website: HTML Tables
Stock airplane photos were found: here
Icons are here: Horse and Bird
Time of day image was split up from this image
Flight Phase image was editted from this original image
The image of the bird hitting the plane can be found here

Planes vs Animals

An Analysis of the FAA Data on Planes Striking Animals in Pennsylvania