Deadly birds

Considering the number of aircraft, civilian and military that have been damaged or brought down by bird strikes over the years, having rubbish dumps in the vicinity of airport runways would appear to be an act of monumental stupidity. Birds are attracted to rubbish dumps like iron filings to a magnet. They flock in their tens of thousands to landfills and dumps, and it only takes a few seagulls or crows to be ingested into a jet engine for it to have a flameout. Aircraft engines are designed to absorb bird strikes up to a certain weight, but the sheer volume of birds attracted to rubbish dumps would exceed safety limits if they went into the engine. An aircraft was grounded at Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) last month after hitting birds. This is hardly a surprising event as there are six large garbage sites in the immediate vicinity of the airport, and individually and collectively, they constitute a very large accident waiting to happen. An open space directly in front of the end of the runway is posing a particular hazard and birds are ever-present.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says that there have been dozens of incidents in which birds have damaged the engines of aircraft taking off and landing from BBIA. The CAA commissioned a survey to confirm the blindingly obvious, the six primary sites of dangerous dumping were identified and the Rawalpindi municipal services management duly notified. They have been asked to remove the waste and close the sites but it appears that action is yet to be taken. This is an act of gross mismanagement that could have fatal consequences. International flights go in and out of BBIA, and an aircraft coming down may impact a densely-populated urban area. The consequences are almost unthinkable. The risks must have been known to whoever authorised the setting up of the dump sites and in the event of an accident, the blame for any casualties will lie at their door, not that of the airline operator or the airport itself. Clean it up before your luck runs out.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2014.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.