With the arrival of winter birds, the open area around Hazrat Shahjalal airport has become a sanctuary of guest birds though the number of bird hits with flying aircraft have risen. Specialists feel that bird strikes happen when planes take off or land.
With such strikes increasing, there is always the risk of an accident. Since the water bodies around the airport are favourite haunts of the guest birds, winter season becomes a little risky for planes.
The airport has bird shooters but their number is inadequate. Once there was a machine which drove away birds by creating noise.
Reportedly, this device is inactive at the moment.
Currently, bird shooters are doing the work. However, in other airports of the world, laser lights or ultra sound are used to keep the runway area free of birds.
The possibility of danger or accident rises when birds enter the engines of planes, say airlines officials and add: “pilots also feel mental pressure if there’s risk of bird hits.”
Member of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, CAAB, air commodore, A Mustafizur Rahman, says: “there’s no alternative to bird shooters; once we had sound machines but they were not effective.”