Bird strikes cost the national flag carrier millions of rupees, according to Civil Aviation Authority. In the last 5 months, there have been 29 bird strikes at local airports alone.
Sources at Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) say that so far in May alone, there have been ten bird strikes. Most of the trouble happened at the airports in Karachi and Lahore. Due to these hits, seven planes were damaged.
Flight PK-310, an Airbus-320 going from Karachi to Quetta, was hit by a bird as soon as it took off on Wednesday morning. After the bird hit, the plane’s captain called the control tower and asked if the plane could land again.
After the bird hit the plane, it was moved to the garage and the people on board were moved to the lounge. During the inspection, it was found that the plane’s engine had six broken blades.
The PIA representative said that the passengers of the Karachi-Quetta flight were put on a different flight because it took longer than expected to fix the plane that was broken.
The national airline’s management has shared data on how many bird strikes there have been in the last five months.
Only this month, 10 incidents have been recorded at the airports of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Peshawar, Gilgit, and Multan.
Most of the bird strikes, 16 in total, were recorded at the airports in Karachi and Lahore. PIA planes have also been hit by birds in Jeddah and Bahrain in the last five months. Because of the bird hits, seven planes were hurt. But in 22 of these situations, there was no damage to the plane.
Most events happened when the plane was approaching or landing. Three bird strikes happened during takeoff, and one happened during the takeoff roll.
Sources say that bird strikes cost the PIA a lot of money because the planes that were hit are temporarily stopped. The plane going to the hangar to get fixed will also cause delays for the passengers. Most of the time, these trips are canceled.
Sources say that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has people who shoot birds in the airport’s funnel area, which is where planes take off and land. The CAA’s spokesman said that the authority has put out a call for bids to install modern systems to keep birds away from the country’s biggest airports.
The person in charge of this system’s installation hoped that it would be done soon.
A spokesperson said that bird shooters are often used during aerial activities at the takeoff and landing sites to scare the birds away.
Because of things like putting trash out near runways, birds often hang out in the airspace and make it dangerous for planes to take off and land.
Banners are put up regularly to let people in neighborhoods near airports know what’s going on. He also said that the CAA does extra things for Eidul Azha.
