It’s been quite an eventful week in the world of airport wildlife safety, with headlines coming in from four continents including actual bird strikes, new initiatives and freshly released data.
Engine Damaged in Pakistan Bird Strike
A Boeing 747 operated by Pakistani airline AirSial suffered major and costly damage to an engine after ingesting a bird during a landing at Islamabad. Fortunately, the pilot was able to complete the landing safely.
The plane had departed for Islamabad from Dammam, Saudi Arabia and had already had to make an unplanned stop en route due to poor weather. While coming in to land at its destination, it struck a bird causing 19 blades of its engine to break.
The bill for repairing the plain reportedly exceeds Rs500 million (£1.3 million, US$1.8 million). This will be compounded by disruption while the plane is awaiting the necessary parts for repair, which must be sourced from overseas and may take several days to arrive.
Nigerian Bird Strike Prompts Emergency Return
The flight schedule of Nigerian airline Air Peace was disrupted last week after a plane departing from Lagos to Enugu made an emergency return to base after colliding with a bird soon after departure. The return was described as precautionary by the airline.
The decision was made to bring the plane back so that engineers could assess any damage and make a clear and informed decision on safety before the plane was relied upon to transport passengers. However, the collision had a significant knock-on effect on the airline’s operations, causing a number of other flights to be delayed or rescheduled.
Mumbai Petition Highlights Offsite Bird Hazards for Airport
A group of retirees has filed a petition with the Bombay High Court seeking the relocation of a waste disposal site. The filers are concerned that the site is creating a hazard to aircraft by attracting birds to the area, being only 8km away from Mumbai Airport.
The site in question processes 800-900 tonnes of waste per day, much of which is attractive to birds. Under ICAO guidelines, airports are required to consider the risks posed by bird attractant sites within 13km, as sites this close to an airport can lead to a significant increase in bird activity around the airport itself.
Italian Airport Wildlife Incidents Up in 2024
Bird Strike Committee Italy (BSCI) has released data showing that there were more than 2600 wildlife incidents at Italian airports last year. This is an increase of over 8% compared to the year before, though much of this is down to an increase in the volume of air traffic.
The 2618 incidents recorded in 2024 were up 8.3% compared to 2023, according to the data released by BSCI, which is part of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC). Total air traffic was up 7.2% year-on-year. This accounts for much of the change in wildlife incidents, but the increase in strikes is still out of line with the growth of air traffic by 1.1 percentage points.
Fiji Announces Bird Strike Crackdown
The government of Fiji has announced an increased focus on safety in air travel, including a crackdown on bird strike risk. “Bird strikes can be quite serious, and it has contributed to some disasters around the world. So we need to manage that,” said Viliame Gavoka, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism.
Organisations including the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji, Fiji Airports, and Fiji Airways will collaborate to drive down the risk of bird and bat strikes. Fiji’s cabinet has also approved the creation of a dedicated body to monitor wildlife incidents at airports.
Scarecrow Bird Control Solutions
This week’s stories underline the financial and operational costs of bird strikes, as well as the implications for passenger safety, and the increasing global recognition of the need to mitigate these risks. Scarecrow offers a comprehensive suite of solutions for bird dispersal, record-keeping and analysis to keep the risk low, even when it comes to off-site hazards like the Mumbai waste disposal site. To find out more about our airport bird control solutions, click here.
