[Answered] What are the reasons behind instances of bird hits on aircrafts? What precautionary and remedial measures can be taken to prevent mishappening due to such incidents?

The event of an airborne animal (usually a bird or a bat) hitting an airplane in flight is referred to as a bird strike. Bird strikes usually occur when an airplane is flying at low altitudes. In India in 2021, DGCA data has recorded over 1,400 suspected and confirmed wildlife incidents (for 20.5 lakh aircraft movements), up from nearly 840 cases in 2016 (for 22.9 lakh aircraft movements). Most of the incidents were reported from Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Reasons:

• The presence of birds around an airfield increases the chances of a bird strike.
• In monsoons, as water puddles emerge in open grounds attracting insects to breed, it also increases the presence of birds in these regions.
• Areas surrounding an airport like slaughter houses and garbage dumping attract wildlife.
• The hustle and bustle of airports tend to drive away larger predators. As a result, the lands surrounding airports can be like a sanctuary for birds, especially if they also contain wetlands or drainage ponds.
• Bird strikes occur when pilots try to climb over them during the initial take-off phase. Birds get sucked into an engine as an aircraft engine’s field of ingestion is quite high with take-off thrust.

Measures:

• Open areas of grass and water, shrubs, trees provide food and roosting sites for birds. For this reason, airports should cut down trees with nests and reduce rainwater pooling.
• Planes painted in dark colours attract more birds. Hence, brighter shades should be used to help birds avoid the aircraft.
• Sonic cannons, lasers, recorded predator calls, and noise generators can all be used to simulate predators to scare birds away.
• Airports are also expected to have incinerators to dispose of garbage removed from aircraft.
• Airlines are supposed to have some standard operating procedures for bird strike prevention.
• Understanding bird behaviour is something crew and operators need to be familiar with.
• It must be noted that each airport in India has its unique ecological setting and therefore the solutions are different.
• In the Indian scenario, a proper database needs to be developed that collects essential details such as the bird species, the height of occurrence and exact geospatial coordinates.

Bird strikes are a significant threat to flight safety. Increased occurrence of bird strikes is increasing the problem. To avoid this threat, a precise prediction of bird movement is essential to enhance aviation and avian safety.