Birds pose a much larger threat to aircraft than the Port Authority has led the public to believe, secret government statistics reveal.
The Port Authority's PR team released a fact sheet on Jan. 15, the day of the Miracle on the Hudson, saying that bird strikes were on the decline, according to Monday's New York Post.
But the new figures tell quite a different tale.
From 2003-07, bird strikes were on the rise at all three area airports.
+ LaGuardia
2003: 61
2007: 101
+ JFK
2003: 106
2007: 163
+ Newark
2003: 58
2007: 97
In 2003, there was a total of 225 bird strikes, and in 2007, that figure had risen to 361, an increase of 60 percent.
And figures through the middle of last year show that the 2008 totals will at least equal, if not surpass, those of 2007, according to the report.
After the Post uncovered the new statistics, the Port Authority acknowledged, "We made a mistake on that fact sheet."
