Interview with Bird Strike Expert Dr. Ron Merritt (audio - MP3)

On January 18th, 2009, three days after the bird strike related ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York, I interviewed bird strike expert Dr. Ron Merritt. He's currently the president of Detect, Inc., which manufactures bird strike avoidance radars. He was also at one time the military commander of US Air Force unit responsible for understanding and reducing bird strike hazards to Air Force aircraft. For the next half hour or so, you'll hear Ron and I discuss a variety of bird strike and wildlife hazard topics, including the need for wildlife experts in the US Airways accident investigation team, wildlife control policy issues, and the history of the key bird strike organizations in the US and Canada.