The Other Flight 1549s

Most people didn’t know what “bird strike” meant before US Airways Flight 1549 crashed in the Hudson in January, but now the FAA has released thousands of records detailing the scary phenomenon—inspired, strangely enough, by President Obama’s release of the CIA memos. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote on his blog that he released the records because the White House recently released controversial CIA interrogation memos, something he never dreamed would happen before. "But, if CIA information like that can see the light of day, there is a new paradigm, and making bird-strike reports available should certainly be a part of that new paradigm," he wrote. The report noted that bird strikes have doubled since 2000 at major airports.