About 800 geese near NYC airports euthanized

[June 20, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- About 800 Canada geese around New York City's two airports have been trapped and euthanized, part of an effort to reduce the type of bird strike that led to a jetliner landing in the Hudson River last winter

Birds have been culled from 15 sites within five miles of LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Carol Bannerman says agency biologists and other specialists are trapping and euthanizing the birds. Officials plan to kill 2,000 geese within weeks.

U.S. Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from LaGuardia on Jan. 15 and was over the Bronx when it ran into geese and lost both engines.

Pilot Chesley Sullenberger safely landed the plane in the river that lies between Manhattan and New Jersey. All 155 aboard survived.

[Associated Press]

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