The article will soon be submerged under the December heading for this year.
"Logan Airport leads the way on snowy owl issue; NYC airports follow example, shift from shooting to catch-and-release" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, December 11, 2013
Call it the year of the snowy owl.
In just the past month, the powdery white Arctic creatures have been spotted much farther afield than their usual habitats, with bird-watchers in the Northeast reporting the most snowy owl sightings in recent memory.
Because it is colder down here than it should be.
So it comes as no surprise that record numbers of the birds have arrived at Northeast airports, snowy owls’ preferred proxy for the Arctic tundra. And as aviation officials grapple with the risks posed by the owls, New York’s airports are now taking a cue from Logan International Airport and catching and releasing the birds, rather than shooting them.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport made headlines on Sunday when it was revealed that officials had ordered staff to shoot snowy owls on sight after five of the birds flew into airplanes at New York-area airports in the past two weeks.
That's government's solution to everything: kill it!
The news was met with shock, dismay, and consternation from animal activists, especially New York’s chapters of the Audubon Society, which wrote a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey requesting a change in policy.
“While we understand that due to their large size these birds may pose a threat to air safety,” wrote the Audubon chapters of New York and New York City, “other airports including Boston’s Logan Airport have utilized non-lethal control techniques such as trapping to manage the larger than normal occurrence of snowy owls.”
The outcry seemed to do the trick. On Monday night, Port Authority officials said they had forged an agreement with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation that would allow them to catch and release the owls, rather than exterminate them.
“The Port Authority’s goal is to strike a balance in humanely controlling bird populations at and around the agency’s airports to safeguard passengers on thousands of aircrafts each day,” the agency said in a statement.
I was never a big believer of birds causing plane crashes because I always believed there would be a lot more of them. Sounding like a pre-made excuse for something bad.
Some were still miffed at the kill order — an animal-rights group called Friends of Animals said Tuesday that it planned to file a lawsuit against the Port Authority for shooting three of the birds — but in Boston, aviation officials said they were glad to see that others were following in the more compassionate and eco-friendly footsteps of Logan.
Norman Smith, director of the Mass Audubon Society Blue Hills Trailside Museum and an owl expert who captures and releases most of the owls that arrive at Logan, said he knows the significant risk presented by birds. Most famously, a US Airways airplane was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009 after colliding with a flock of geese, some of which were sucked into the plane’s engines....
You believe that? If so, why not happening way more often?
Though specialists at Logan have caught and released more than 500 snowy owls since relocation efforts began decades ago, they also employ other methods to deter the birds from the airport. Sound cannons have been installed at the birds’ preferred resting spots, and staff sometimes fire pistols with blanks to shoo them away. The grassy fields are landscaped to reduce puddles that attract smaller birds and rodents, and the grass is laced with a bacteria that causes indigestion in birds.
Waging biological warfare on the birds!
The snowy owls that are trapped and released are outfitted with GPS devices that allow researchers to track their flight path, providing important details about their travel patterns and helping airport officials better anticipate where and when the birds will arrive.
It’s important work at airports, where ill-timed bird appearances can end with tragic results. In 1960, an aircraft that took off from Logan crashed into Winthrop Bay after the engines ingested a set of starlings, killing 62 people.
At Logan, shooting birds is an absolute last resort and usually that measure is reserved for geese, or other flocking birds that tend to present more of a threat than the solitary snowy owl.
In the past, the biggest snowy owl year yielded 43 captures at Logan in the winter. So far, 21 of the birds have been trapped — and snowy owl season is just beginning.
“It’s a really good year for snowy owls, probably much better than any I can remember,” said Smith, the Mass Audubon owl expert.
Scientists and owl enthusiasts aren’t quite sure why.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist who has spent 25 years at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. “There’s no clear signal yet.”
McGowan said the increased number of sightings could be a signal of something very good — plentiful food leading to the birth of more of the birds than ever before — or something very bad, such as climate change curtailing the food supply and forcing more owls to venture south to survive.
But, he continued, one thing is certain: It’s a great time to be a snowy owl enthusiast.
“They’re like Eskimo teddy bears. And then there’s the whole Harry Potter thing, so they’re familiar to people,” McGowan said. “They’re charismatic, so when people start knocking them off at airports, we notice.”
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Lost Snowy Owl Living at Logan
They come down every year, huh?
At least there isn't any fog.
"Logan widens its reach and its impact; A spurt of new international routes reflects changing business needs and a changing airline industry" by Katie Johnston | Globe Staff, December 27, 2013
Logan International Airport.... gateway to the world.
**********************
Massachusetts Port Authority
In the past, overseas routes out of Logan have been leisure-oriented, concentrated in the Caribbean or Europe. But the new flights focus on the needs of businesses, from major financial institutions to small technology firms, which increasingly work with customers and suppliers around the globe. Foreign companies also are more likely invest and do business in Boston if it’s easy to get here....
The new routes should also boost the region’s tourism and higher education industries.
Education is an indu$try.
Many of the state’s colleges and universities attract international students, and the new nonstops, particularly Hainan Airlines’ flight to Beijing and Emirates’ route to Dubai, a gateway to India, should bring in even more — and encourage their families to visit more often, airport officials said....
China is one of the state’s biggest and fastest-growing markets for international tourists....
See: Beijing-Logan flights are official
On airport executives’ radar: Tel Aviv, a welcome addition for the more than 200 innovation-related businesses in Massachusetts with Israeli connections.
See: Firms linked to Israel prospering in Mass.
How many tax subsidies are they receiving?
Other in-demand destinations include Shanghai, Hong Kong, Delhi, Mumbai, Milan, and South America, particularly Brazil, Boston’s biggest Latin American destination and trading partner.
All five of the new international routes are on foreign carriers — Japan Airlines, Copa Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, and Hainan Airlines — in part because US airlines tend to operate international flights from their hub cities, said Thomas Glynn, chief executive of Massport. Airlines in growing regions of the world like Asia and South America are also acquiring more aircraft and looking to expand service as their countries grow richer....
New passport-scanning kiosks will speed up the process for arriving passengers.
Related: Glass pods replace security guards at 2 airports
As you are LEAVING the AIRPORT? So who is getting those contracts for something completely useless?!
Logan is poised to set another record this year with a projected 29.6 million passengers moving through the airport, surpassing 2012’s 29.3 million.
See: Logan expects a 3d straight record in 2013
And with air travel around the world expected to rise 30 percent in the next four years, three new foreign routes opening in 2014, and more international destinations on the horizon, Logan is only going to get more crowded.
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Related: Airlines expect profits to jump to record high
Everyone is making money but you, 'murkn!
"US airman charged with making threat at Logan" by Jasper Craven | Globe Correspondent, September 05, 2013
An airman in the US Air Force is facing charges that he made a threat, claiming to have a pressure cooker in his bag, at Logan International Airport, authorities said.
Pffffft!
Jeremy Sawyer of Cicero, N.Y., approached Massport employee Carlos Torres Jr. at an information booth at about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in Terminal C, a State Police report filed in East Boston District Court said.
Sawyer requested that Torres accept him into the USO military lounge in the terminal. Torres checked to see if the lounge was open. When he discovered it was not and notified Sawyer, Sawyer allegedly became “upset and irate,” according to the report.
Sawyer, 30, spoke about the Boston Marathon bombings during the confrontation and pointed to his backpack and said, “What am I supposed to do with this pressure cooker?” according to the report.
After his statement, Sawyer pounded his fists on the table and left toward Terminal E. The alleged threat was immediately broadcast to State Police stationed in the airport, and all available officers were dispatched. Two officers found Sawyer at about 12:15 p.m. in Terminal E. After confirming his identity, they arrested him for making a threat concerning the location of a dangerous device.
A pressure cooker was never found on Sawyer or in his bag, said State Police spokesman David Procopio.
Sawyer was arraigned in East Boston District Court Wednesday on a charge of making a bomb or hijack threat. A not-guilty plea was automatically entered on his behalf, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.
Sawyer was released on his own recognizance with an order that he stay away from Logan. His next scheduled court appearance is Dec. 20, prosecutors said.
Sawyer’s attorney, Austin Freeley, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
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Globe left that item behind because I never saw it in print and never received an update.
Also see: 9/11 Memory Hole: Line at Logan
Just in case you are caught at the terminal.
