‘Snarge’ happens, and studying it makes your flight safer
When I wrote about European starlings and their complex North American origin story, I didn’t expect readers to be so fascinated by one particular word in the article: snarge. But as the emails, tweets and other feedback poured in, it became clear that this gnarly-sounding six-letter word and the field of scientific inquiry that produced it were worth closer examination. On Oct. 4, 1960, a Lockheed L-188 Electra airplane nose-dived into Boston Harbor just seconds after takeoff. Out of 72 crew members and passengers, only 10 survived. As investigators sorted through the rubble, they kept finding globs of what appeared to be black feathers. Such material eventually came to be known as snarge. Best investigators could surmise, the Electra’s engines had ingested a flock of birds, but no one could say what sort of bird could bring down an airplane of that size. So the investigators called Roxie Laybourne, an ornithologist at the Smithsonian Institution who was an expert on feathers. With a vast collection of museum specimens at her disposal, Ms. Laybourne compared microscopic patterns in the feathers. What wrecked the Electra had not belonged to a large-bodied bird, like a vulture, turkey or crow. Rather, the feathers were from to the diminutive European starling. In the decades after, airports would hire wildlife biologists to take the information Laybourne provided and use it to discourage certain bird species from flocking around their flight paths. In turn,Laybourne would become a science and air-traffic safety legend known as the Feather Lady. You’d be just as warranted in calling her the Queen of Snarge. Carla Dove, program manager for the Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab andLaybourne’s successor, said she wasn’t sure who first coined the term snarge, but that she first heard it at the museum. Snarge can be a wad of a Canada goose lodged inside an airplane engine. Or it can be a broken and burned gull feather littered along the runway. Snarge can even be as small as a rusty-red smear on the nose of an airliner. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-04-15/general/2018snarge2019-happens-and-studying-it-makes-your-flight-safer
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‘Snarge’ happens, and studying it makes your flight safer
When I wrote about European starlings and their complex North American origin story, I didn’t expect readers to be so fascinated by one particular word in the article: snarge. But as the emails, tweets and other feedback poured in, it became clear that this gnarly-sounding six-letter word and the field of scientific inquiry that produced it were worth closer examination. On Oct. 4, 1960, a Lockheed L-188 Electra airplane nose-dived into Boston Harbor just seconds after takeoff. Out of 72 crew members and passengers, only 10 survived. As investigators sorted through the rubble, they kept finding globs of what appeared to be black feathers. Such material eventually came to be known as snarge. Best investigators could surmise, the Electra’s engines had ingested a flock of birds, but no one could say what sort of bird could bring down an airplane of that size. So the investigators called Roxie Laybourne, an ornithologist at the Smithsonian Institution who was an expert on feathers. With a vast collection of museum specimens at her disposal, Ms. Laybourne compared microscopic patterns in the feathers. What wrecked the Electra had not belonged to a large-bodied bird, like a vulture, turkey or crow. Rather, the feathers were from to the diminutive European starling. In the decades after, airports would hire wildlife biologists to take the information Laybourne provided and use it to discourage certain bird species from flocking around their flight paths. In turn,Laybourne would become a science and air-traffic safety legend known as the Feather Lady. You’d be just as warranted in calling her the Queen of Snarge. Carla Dove, program manager for the Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab andLaybourne’s successor, said she wasn’t sure who first coined the term snarge, but that she first heard it at the museum. Snarge can be a wad of a Canada goose lodged inside an airplane engine. Or it can be a broken and burned gull feather littered along the runway. Snarge can even be as small as a rusty-red smear on the nose of an airliner. Story has more.<br/>
