Stray animals wandering the runway of Cox’s Bazar Airport have increased the chances of accidents while landing over the last few years.
For the last few years, the airport at Cox’s Bazar, one of the most popular tourist hubs in the country, has been undergoing renovations and hence security is quite lax.
Stray dogs are seen running around the terminal and the runway in the last two years incidents of dogs being run over have been reported.
Novo Air Chief of Safety Captain Ashfaqur Rahman says that the plane hitting anything during landing is extremely risky.
“It can be anything including animals. If the pilot has an idea before they turn around and don’t land,” he told Bangla Tribune.
According to pilots, while it’s possible to turn away if they have an idea about an animal on the runway, it becomes extremely difficult to control when something suddenly pops out of nowhere.
Moreover, since the aircrafts operating in the domestic routes are small in size animals can easily hit them.
They said that there has been an instance when a Regent Airways aircraft’s nose gear was damaged due to a fox.
“In the domestic routes, birds and wild animals wander around the runway of Cox’s Bazar Airport the most,” Ashfaqur Rahman says.
He added that they have already written to the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh regarding the matter.
The airport Manager Abdullah Al Faruque told Bangla Tribune that they have taken steps along with the Cox’s Bazar Municipality and Air Force to control the wandering animals and the airport was always on alert.