LAHORE : Birds pose a major threat to the aircrafts while flying in the vicinity of airports.
The bird strike can cause accident risking passengers’ life or else causing serious damage to the aircraft.
In 2016, at least 38 incidents of bird strike below 500 ft occurred in Lahore whereas 20 incidents took place in Karachi.
The reason behind the abundance of birds is the residing population, grass and weeds in the airport jurisdiction.
The international law prohibits activities such as having a poultry farm or a refuse dump, etc., which can attract birds in an area lying within a radius of seven nautical miles from the landing or take-off ends of the runway and within five nautical miles from either end.
The law states that the human population should be atleast 13km away from the airport.
The number of bird shooters at Allama Iqbal international Airport is 22 whose monthly pay is more than Rs3.5 lac.
The shooters have to aerial fire from a 12-bore gun or flare gun, 15 minutes before landing or take-off of a plane.
When a bird collides with the windscreen, the damages are estimated to one lac dollar whereas if the engine blade has to be replaced it costs from Rs50 lac to Rs 2 crore.
The accidents also result in flight cancellation as a result of which the airline bears a loss of Rs1 crore for international and Rs40 lac for national.
According to a survey, bird strike incidents have happened for more than 65000 times globally causing the companies to invest Rs400 million dollars on the refurbishment of the planes.