Delhi airport: Flights increase, bird hits don’t

The sky above Delhi has become a lot safer for commercial planes than ever before. The number of bird hits has stayed the same over 2008 despite a substantial jump in flights, reports Sidhartha Roy.

The sky above Delhi has become a lot safer for commercial planes than ever before. The number of bird hits has stayed the same over 2008 despite a substantial jump in flights.

HT Image

But the Capital still reported the maximum bird hits, accounting for 67 of 302 countrywide in 2009.

The good news is this: the number of bird hits remained the same at 76 despite an increase of more than 50 flights from 2008.

Ahmedabad, meanwhile, has become the bigger worry — number of bird hits going up from 21 in 2008 to 34 in 2009.

“In the past two years, the operational area of IGI airport has nearly doubled but comparatively, the bird strike rate has decreased,” said a senior airport official, requesting anonymity.

Private airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd. has taken measures to tackle the menace — bursting crackers to scare away the birds and checking littering to ensure there was nothing they could come for.

Incidents of birds hitting aircraft usually occur during landing and take-off. There is not much impact if a bird hits the plane’s body but when it gets sucked into an engine, it causes engine failure.