Bird-hits rising: Study

New Delhi: Dirty surroundings of airports have made landings and take offs a risky affair in India.
While, almost all airlines say this is a routine feature, which causes hardships to passengers and great expense on repairing the damage to the aircraft, an airline has now compiled all such incidents over the past 13 months and reported a staggering 84 hits during that period.
India's largest private carrier Jet Airways has recorded incidents from October 2006 to date. The number is very high for just one airline. Jet operates 350 flights daily, and is second only to national carrier's figure of over 550.
Luckily for the airline, 49 incidents did not see the aircraft getting damaged, although, in many of these cases, the flights were delayed. But the sheer figure of 84 hits in 13 months for just one carrier is scary, admit aviation industry insiders.
The airline has rated Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Vadodara, Hyderabad and Bangalore as being prone to bird hits. Other places like Bhopal, Rajkot, Nagpur and Kolkata also faces the problem but not frequently.
06/11/07 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Nov 2007, Safety Nov 2007