24-year-old bald eagle keeps planes safe at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario
Published March 21, 2024 at 11:25 am
This worker at Pearson Airport in Mississauga quietly goes about his daily business of helping to keep planes of all sizes — and their passengers and crew — safe from a very specific threat.
He’s been performing the important task for more than two decades now — since 2001, to be exact — and he hasn’t received a single pay increase in that time.
No complaints, though, from Ivan, a 24-year-old bald eagle who heads up a team of some 25 birds of prey that helps keep the five runways and airspace at and around Canada’s biggest and busiest airport clear of smaller birds.
Along with their human handlers, the large winged creatures reduce the number of smaller birds “and thus the chances of an airplane experiencing a bird strike,” Pearson officials said in a post to social media this week.
Bird strikes have been the cause of numerous plane crashes over the years in Canada and the U.S. resulting in loss of human life. Still, the number of such incidents is very low, according to aviation authorities.
Ivan is the lone bald eagle among Pearson’s winged runway/airspace safety crew, airport officials note. Weighing seven pounds, he’s the biggest bird of prey on duty at the airport and joined the wildlife management team in 2001.
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