Bird Strikes

After a stricken US Airways jet made an extraordinary emergency landing in the Hudson River on Thursday, a flotilla of commuter ferries, water taxis and other boats plucked all 155 passengers and crew -- many shivering as they stood on the plane's wings -- to safety in as little as five minutes. It was the charmed culmination to what could have been a tragic flight after the Airbus A320 lost power over New York and glided into the icy river. "I believe we've had a miracle on the Hudson," Gov.

The website George Zimmerman created to raise funds for his defense against charges in the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin  was shut down this week, Zimmerman's attorney said Wednesday. The site started up this month to raise funds for the defense of Zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin, an African American. Zimmerman, the son of a Latina, has apologized for killing Martin, 17, saying he acted in self-defense when their paths crossed on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. When he first established the site, Zimmerman, 28, said he linked it to PayPal in order to raise funds for his defense.

Alarmed about hundreds of sea gulls crashing into planes, officials at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport hired government biologists who shot nearly 15,000 gulls last year, documents show. The shootings, documented in a federal study obtained by the Associated Press, were an act of desperation at an airport situated next to a national wildlife refuge, says Jack Gartner, manager of aeronautical services at JFK. "We've always approached shooting as a last resort," he said.

The Big Apple will have to wait a few more days for its space shuttle to arrive. The retiring space shuttle Enterprise was supposed to arrive Wednesday, but bad weather delayed the plans for a dramatic New York City flyover. (The flyover was originally supposed to happen Monday, but an unfavorable forecast scuttled those plans, too.) NASA said Wednesday that the rendezvous could now take place Friday -- Mother Nature permitting. The highly anticipated flyover comes as the space shuttle heads into retirement at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum this summer in New York City.

Roxie C. Laybourne, who pioneered the science of forensic ornithology to help protect airplanes from collisions with birds, has died. She was 92. Laybourne died Aug. 7 in suburban Washington, D.C., following a long illness. Semiretired since cataracts dimmed her eyesight a few years ago, she recently did her work from her 26-acre Virginia farm.

Fresh with a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University, 25-year-old Trena Markus took a job last June at Douglas Aircraft Co. in Long Beach, where she works on development of the C-17, a cargo jet for the U.S. Air Force. Markus spends long hours scratching out designs with a pad and pencil, but she enjoys the headwork. She is especially excited about the C-17, a new breed of aircraft, because it presents some special design problems.

Officials at John Wayne Airport have tried driving them away with noise-making machines, scaring them off with blank shotgun blasts and jarring them with kites that resemble birds of prey. But no amount of bullying has convinced a bunch of stubborn pigeons to leave their grassy perch on the edges of the airport's tarmac. So now, the county is taking a more subtle approach.

Hostile foreign powers seem to be less of a menace to the U.S. Air Force these days than a few low-flying fowl. In 1986 and 1987, birds striking Air Force jets resulted in six deaths, four aircraft losses and total damages worth more than $260 million, according to the Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard Team at Bolling Air Force Base, Colo. The Air Force's Aeronautical Systems division is now testing a new windshield for its A-7 aircraft that will triple the protection from birds.

The latest version of the Navy's proposal to fly Lear jets straight at a Silver Strand Beach radar facility has raised new safety concerns from the California Coastal Commission and a harbor safety committee. The commission, which signed off on the much-debated plan last year, said it may reconsider its support and has called a hearing next month to review the proposal.

As pop culture audiences, we're conditioned to enjoy our thrills with a little fake blood, along with a pressure-releasing sense of catharsis. "Charlie Victor Romeo" is different. It is a genuine theatrical white knuckler, a documentary drama that grinds your guts without getting cheap about it. For this real-life assignment, the show's eight performers necessarily resist the temptation to pump things up or break a sweat.