Bird strike incidents: Modern electronic system to be installed on airports

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has decided to install a modern electronic system on major airports for ensuring flight safety from the bird-plane collision incidents, making an end to the traditional procedures, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The automated bioacoustic bird prevention system will effectively use the digital recording of species-specific distress calls to make the runways free of birds instead of using propane cannons and pyrotechnics.

In order to make progress on the project, the CAA director-general Hassan Nasir Jamy issued directives to the concerned departments.

The bird strike incidents are consistently occurred at the country’s airports especially in Karachi and Lahore due to the lack of cleanliness in the adjacent populated areas, posing severe dangers to the aircraft and passengers.

Over 22 incidents of bird strikes on aircraft had been reported during the past seven months in the country, according to statistics provided by the spokesperson of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on July 20.

The bird-hit incidents were increasing in the country and added that the national flag-carrier suffered most in term of financial loss due to bird strike incidents, the spokesperson said.

Stressing the need for cleanliness in areas around the airfields, he had maintained that over 22 PIA planes hit by birds at different airports across the country during the current year. 10 bird-plane collision incidents had been reported in just 19 days of July.

The spokesperson had said that the incidents not only caused financial loss to the national airline but also affected flights schedule. Expressing concerns over the incidents, the PIA spokesperson urged CAA to install bird repellent system around the airfields.