The larrikin galah has earned the unwelcome accolade of the most common Australian bird species to have its life ended by the fuselage of an aircraft.
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In the past decade, 727 of the iconic pink cockatoos have perished in aircraft strikes, according to an interactive dashboard published by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on Wednesday.
Galahs beat magpies and plovers, which were involved in 490 and 421 collisions respectively, to take the honour.
Bats and flying foxes also featured heavily on the list, accounting for more than 1300 incidents between them.
The dashboard details all wildlife strikes in the past decade and includes information such as species of animal, severity of collision, location and aircraft involved.
Understandably, many pilots were unable to identify the species of animal annihilated on their aircraft, with the source of almost 6000 birdstrikes unknown.
It is hoped the granular data will help pilots, regulators and other aviation industry participants understand and manage the hazards of birdstrikes.
"Wildlife strikes - particularly birdstrikes - represent around a third of the 5500 aviation occurrences reported to the ATSB each year," chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
"While the vast majority of these do not result in any injury to flight crew or passengers, they are a potential safety risk, and present a significant economic cost for aerodrome and aircraft operators."
Birdstrikes were responsible for two fatal incidents between 2014 and March 2024, the period covered by the tool.
In September 2022, pilot Tom Grey was killed when an Australian bustard struck the windshield of his Air Tractor AT-502B struck while crop dusting at a low altitude near Chinchilla, Queensland.
Investigations indicated the plane was only 2.5 metres above the ground when the bustard, one of Australia's largest birds at up to 1.2m and 10kg, shattered the right windshield.
A helicopter pilot was killed two months earlier when his Bell 206L-1 LongRanger broke up mid-flight after colliding with a wedge-tail eagle in northwest Sydney.
Non-flying animals also pose a risk to flight crews.
In June, a Royal Flying Doctor Service plane collided with a cow while landing at a remote airstrip in WA's Pilbara region.
Fortunately, no one was injured as a result of the incident, other than the cow.
Australian Associated Press
