People fly more than they used to, but planes are striking birds and other wildlife at an even faster rate. In 1990, there were about 2.59 wildlife strikes for every 10,000 flights flown. Now, there are more than 10 strikes per 10,000 flights.
Wildlife strikes increase at some, but not all airports. Using the same data as above, we compared the wildlife strikes at three Bay Area airports: San Francisco International(SFO), Oakland International(OAK) and San Jose International(SJC).
These charts were compiled from two sets of FAA data: the Wildlife Strike Database, which shows records each wildlife strike in the US, and the T-100 database, which documents each departure performed at each airport around the US.