DGCA assesses bird hit threat near Delhi airport

On Monday afternoon itself, a Kalitta air cargo plane declared an emergency and landed at IGI due to a suspected bird hit, which damaged the engine. A few days ago, the plane carrying Rahul Gandhi and other dignitaries had to do a go-around due to bird suffered by another plane.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has pulled up Delhi airport operator DIAL after a series of bird hit cases were reported.

According to an official, a DGCA team visited Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Monday to review the measure taken to reduce cases of bird hit.

On Monday afternoon itself, a Kalitta air cargo plane declared an emergency and landed at IGI due to a suspected bird hit, which damaged the engine. A few days ago, the plane carrying Rahul Gandhi and other dignitaries had to do a go-around due to bird suffered by another plane. That incident came came days after a Russian airline flight made a landing in the corn field after taking off from Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport. The emergency landing — which was compared with the Hudson River landing of 2009 —was also caused by a bird hit.

“We visited Delhi Airport on Monday and emphasised the need for an all out efforts to control the bird menace,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar said.

According to the official, the overall number of cases of bird hits have gone down. However during monsoon, the number of cases go up before subsiding. Sources said that 222 cases of bird hits were reported in 2017 at Delhi airport, 174 in 2018 and 85 till July 2019.

The number at airports across the country was 1,125 in 2017 and 1,244 in 2018.

“As a part of understanding animals needs and habitats, DIAL has engaged wildlife consultant at intervals for airfield surveys by Ornithologist/ Taxonomist and Entomologist to understand aerodrome wildlife ecology and suggest measures. This involves identifying the species present in and around the aerodrome and how much damage each species can cause to an aircraft, which is part of risk assessment. Based on risk assessment and examination of habitat in and around airport that have potential to attract wildlife, hazardous species were identified and accordingly measures were adopted which have successfully contributed to containing bird strikes at IGI Airport,” said a spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL).

According to aviation expert, wildlife strike — whether it is bird hitting the plane when it is airborne or some stray animals on runway — poses risk to human lives and can cause huge loss to the airline industry.

“The correct way to see the strike rate is per 10,000 movements. It was 4.82 in 2018 down from 4.98 in 2014,” said a DGCA official.

However, comparative data from last five years show that the strike rate was 4.86 in 2015, 4.57 in 2016 and then increased to 4.71 in 2017 and then 4.82 in 2018. According to DGCA, apart from birds, other animals that damage aircraft include dog, jackal, fox, snake, rabbit and pig.

“While recognizing this safety threat, we are closely monitoring the wildlife activities at all airfields and have made it as one of the state safety priorities. All the state governments through their chief secretaries have been asked to take proactive measure to ensure that no illegal slaughter house, garbage dumps exist in the vicinity of airports,” the DGCA official added.

Airports have also adopted various measures — including deployment of bird scarers — to ensure birds are not flying near the runway. The bird hit usually happen during take off and there have been occasions when the bird has entered the engine, causing it to shut and forcing the pilot to go for an emergency landing.

DGCA also said that the strike mostly happens during monsoon and pilots are also informed regularly about areas where bird presence is more.