STATE COLLEGE — Officials plan to poison thousands of birds at a central Pennsylvania airport more than three years after a commercial airline struck a flock there.

As many as 15,000 European Starlings could be poisoned to reduce the threat.

University Park Airport Director Bryan Rodgers said the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to use a pesticide on the starlings to help reduce the bird-strike risk.

Rodgers said the plan comes in response to an incident on Aug. 19, 2006, when a commercial airliner ran into a flock after takeoff.

He said the plane suffered engine damage and had to return to the airport.

A USDA spokeswoman said the starling flock found in the area has about 15,000 to 20,000 birds, and the department plans to kill about 90 percent of them.