Dar/Mwanza: In less than a week, two planes have collided
with birds at Mwanza Airport raising flight safety concerns and related airline
cost implications, as airport authorities struggle to contain the worrying
incidence of bird strike.
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| Mwanza |
The cost, depending on type of aircraft, can be as high as
$2 million (about Sh4.6 billion), it came to light.
Two days ago, Air Tanzania’s Bombardier 5H-TCE aircraft hit
birds during landing at the Lake Zone’s major airport. This happened three days
after Precision Air reported that it had grounded its ATR-72-500 aircraft for
damage assessment after it run into a flock during landing at the same airport.
Both aircraft, ATCL and Precision Air however, landed
safely. But such incidents are threat to flight safety around the world and
have caused a number of accidents with human casualties, according to the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Mwanza Struggling
Details obtained from the ICAO’s website shows that the
birds usually flying over airports located close to lakes and wildlife areas,
could collide with aircrafts at altitudes as high as 6,000 to 9,000ft.
However, airport authorities in Mwanza, a region notorious
for bird’s trike cases in the country, are currently relying on ground level
mechanisms, such as foot patrols and use of vehicles to scare away birds from
the airport.
Mwanza Airport manager Maulid Mohamed told our reporter that
there was a surge in the number of birds hovering at the airport this year due
to ongoing heavy rains in the region. He said, “In this season, flocks have
increased compared to previous years.”
“We have placed numbers of people at the airport who will
ensure that there is no bird that hangs around when a plane is landing,” he
added during interview.
But, as a standard, ICAO requires all airport authorities to
take action by decreasing the number of birds in the vicinity of airports in
order to reduce the risk of bird strikes.
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