Damaged and expensively repaired aircraft from a record-breaking 29 bird attacks in just five months.
In KARACHI, the national flag airline has lost millions of rupees owing to bird strikes, with 29 such incidents reported at domestic airports in the past five months.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reportedly had eleven bird attacks in the month of May. The airports in Karachi and Lahore were the primary sites of violence. Seven planes were harmed in the attacks.
On Wednesday morning, a bird struck Flight PK-310, an Airbus-320 traveling from Karachi to Quetta. After the bird strike, the pilot radioed the tower to request another landing attempt.
The plane was taken to the hangar while the passengers were taken to the lounge after the bird hit. Six of the plane’s propeller blades were discovered to be damaged during the inspection.
The PIA representative stated that passengers on the Karachi-Quetta flight were rerouted to another trip while the damaged plane was being repaired.
Statistics on bird strikes have been made public by the national airline’s management for the past five months.
Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Peshawar, Gilgit, and Multan airports have all had incidents this month.
Sixteen bird strike occurrences were documented, with the majority occurring at airports in Karachi and Lahore. Birds have also damaged PIA aircraft in Jeddah and Bahrain during the past five months. Seven planes were harmed when birds flew into them. But in 22 of those incidents, the plane was unharmed.
Three bird hits happened during takeoff, and one occurred during the takeoff roll; most incidences occurred during approach and landing.
According to the sources, the PIA has to deal with significant losses because of bird strikes, which temporarily halt the damaged flights. Flight delays occur when an airplane needs to return to the hangar for maintenance. Most of the time, flights like those are canceled.
The Civil Aviation Authority reportedly employs “bird shooters” to kill birds near the airport’s funnel region (the takeoff and landing location). The CAA has published a tender for the installation of state-of-the-art bird repellency systems at the country’s main airports, according to a representative for the organization.
The representative expressed optimism that this system’s installation phase will wrap up quickly.
A representative stated that bird shooters are routinely used to scare birds away from takeoff and landing areas.
The presence of birds in the airspace poses a hazard to takeoffs and landings because of causes such as the dumping of waste near airports.
The people of communities adjacent to airports are often alerted through the use of banners. When it comes to celebrating Eidul Azha, the CAA goes above and above, he said.
