Mitigating the Risk of Bird Strikes: The Use of Virtual Reality During Flight Training

There were 193,969 wildlife strikes in the US from 1990 through 2017. Wildlife strikes annually cost the US civil aviation industry, on average, $186 million in monetary losses and 111,284 hours of aircraft downtime (Dolbeer & Begier, 2019). According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Aeronautical Decision-Making (ADM) is a systematic approach that encourages pilots to identify hazards and manage risks (FAA, 2016). Additionally, it helps aviators to make timely and safe decisions. Even though it is practically impossible to eliminate the risk of bird strikes, crewmembers play a vital role in the accident prevention process (Mendonca, Carney, & Fanjoy, 2018), especially outside the airport environment (Dolbeer & Begier, 2019). Crewmembers can mitigate the risk of aircraft accidents due to birds through adequate flight planning and the use of appropriate aircraft operating techniques, among other strategies.