Clearing the runway

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday July 9th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST:And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Clear to land.

Airplane bird strikes have become more common over the past two decades. The most famous one became a movie.

EICHER: The 2016 film Sully told a story with a happy ending.

A US Airways jet took off from LaGuardia in New York. It hit a flock of Canada geese, disabling both engines and forcing an emergency landing in the Hudson River. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

Airlines report thousands of bird strikes near runways each year. And they can pose a serious risk to planes and the passengers in them.

One airport is working to reduce that risk in an unconventional way.

MAST: Outside West Virginia International Yeager Airport near Charleston, you can hear the sounds of all sorts of things that fly.

SOUND: [Birds]

The kind that God made…

SOUND: [Plane taking off]

And the kind that He allowed man to make.

In the middle of it all are a few others tasked with helping both the birds and the planes do what they’re supposed to do.

AUDIO: Alright, Herc… [Sound of birds]

KEYSER: The stuff that we use it wasn't really working, like the pyrotechnic things, know, like stuff you shoot in the air and stuff like that.

That’s Chris Keyser. He’s the airport’s wildlife specialist.

Wildlife strikes–particularly bird strikes-pose a real threat to planes and passengers. In 2023, U.S. airports reported more than 19,000 bird strikes. The FAA projected that cost at $450 million dollars and 60,000 hours of aircraft downtime.

Airports employ a wide variety of tactics to deter animals–things like decoys, falconry, model aircrafts. But those don’t always work.

KEYSER: They get used to those sounds. They also get used to these fake coyotes and things like that. They get used to them because they never move. And birds and animals, they’re frightened of predators.

So Yeager Airport tried something new: a dog. It isn’t the first to do so but a few years ago Keyser says the airport director wanted to give it a try. She knew Keyser had experience with animals, so she offered him a change in role: from airport manager to animal handler.

KEYSER: I said, did I do something wrong as far as being a manager? She says, no, this is an upgrade, Chris. So give you a day or two to think about it. And I thought about it and I said, sign me up.

Enter a black-and-grey border collie named Hercules. His job: to herd and chase birds away from planes without killing them.

AUDIO: [Chris training Hercules]

KEYSER: Hercules is fantastic. He's one in a million dogs. I'll say it a hundred times.

Keyser starts the morning by greeting and feeding Hercules. And if the control tower calls, they’re ready.

KEYSER: The tower will holler down sometimes, Hey, we got birds out there. And soon as Hercules hears the birds over the radio, he knows the towers need some help to run them all. And so he gets excited and starts to bark and I say, “Let's go. You ready?” He just starts barking and carrying on. He's fired up and ready to run.

The airport where Hercules chases birds is nestled in the Appalachian mountains, near the Elk and Kanawha Rivers. There’s a lot of wildlife. Sparrows, vultures, killdeer, even geese. Rainy days are the busiest days—that’s when the worms come out.

KEYSER: Always call it buffet day. And it's like they can come in and just have a day and our day, our day becomes a lot of work that we might put in six, seven miles, maybe plus that day.

That kind of mileage doesn’t seem to phase border collies.

ALTMAN: They need a job to do and they will go stir crazy if you don't give them a job to do.

Karina Altman is the Zoo Content Manager with the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis. She says the use of border collies to herd animals away from airports is a smart way to steward creation.

ALTMAN: They are bred to work, they are bred to run, they are bred to think, they are often regarded as the most intelligent dog breed. Border Collies have so much energy. So giving them this huge space to run around, it keeps the wildlife away without killing the wildlife. And so it keeps people safe, it keeps the aircraft safe, and it keeps the wildlife safe. So it's a good compromise.

But Hercules is eight years old–and slowing down a bit.

KEYSER: At one time, he could run speeds about 35 miles an hour. He's about 20 right now.

So now his job includes training his newer, younger coworker: Another border collie named Ned.

KEYSER: Ned has picked up on what he does and he watches Herc work and now he's picked up the same skill level that he has so he knows not to go on the runway and when I holler for Herc, Ned pulls away from the runway. So he's doing the same thing.

But the pair aren’t one-trick collies. On slower days you may find them inside…

SOUND: [Passengers giggling]

…welcoming passengers and posing for social media.

KEYSER: A lot of times you see somebody sad or crying, they might be worrying about flying out of here. And a lot of times they say, I'll put Herc up beside them, next thing you know the tears just go away. So it makes a difference in somebody's day.

Passenger Janet Spry sits next to Hercules, accepting every slurpy kiss he gives her:

SPRY: I know the hard work he does, but he's such a wonderful ambassador for just here. He just makes you feel really good.

For Chris Keyser, it’s work that is fulfilling:

KEYSER: It's been the best decision I ever made. just working with these dogs, it just makes you feel good every day. And I just love my job.

And it’s important.

KEYSER: It could be that one bird for that day, if you're not hitting that plane, can make a difference in somebody's flight. And I like to try to make the difference for somebody's life that flies in and out of here or a plane to be safe, make his place where it needs to go.

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