News just in from New York, that the US Airways Airbus A320 crash on the Hudson River was caused by a flock of birds flying into the plane's engines, has strengthened claims by some scientists that the nightmare scenario predicted by movie director, Alfred Hitchcock, 40 years ago, is about to take place.
Hitchcock predicted, in his movie, The Birds (1963), that an ornithological disaster would come to pass, whereby the forces of nature, in this case 'birds', would turn on humankind, wreaking grisly revenge.
This certainly seems to have been the case in the Hudson River air crash, after birds went on a Kamikaze-style mission, and flew into the engines of the Airbus A320, forcing it to ditch in the water.
The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, even claims that many of the birds tried, in vain, to pierce the window of the cockpit by pecking wildly at the glass. Thousands of others could be seen sitting on the wings of the plane as it came down.
Experts say that, although it is not unusual for birds to be caught in a plane's engines, it is extremely rare for an attack on humans by birds.
In Hitchcock's film, millions of birds first congregate, and then attack the residents of a picturesque North Californian fishing village, Bodega Bay. Children are attacked, people are killed by having their eyes pecked out, and a really frightening experience is had by all. To counter this, stop putting nuts out for the birds, chop your bird table up for firewood, and throw all bits of leftover food in the bin.
Tippi Hedren is 79.