Worried by the repeated cases of bird strikes at airport runways in Nigeria, particularly at the Port Harcourt International Airport, the Station Manager of the DANA airline, Francis Ofangba, has called on airport authorities to wake up to their duties in controlling the influx of birds at the runway.
The Dana Station Manager, who was reacting to recent bird strikes on their flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt, and that of a sister airline flight taking off from Port Harcourt, in a chat with The Tide said the trend has grounded their flights that encountered such bird strike.
He said that any flight that had such an encounter, will not operate until such flight is serviced or repaired, adding that maintenance of aircraft runs into millions of dollars.
According to him, the engine of the aircraft is fragile and when any of these birds hit the engine accidentally during landing or take-off of flight, such will result to a damage to the engine.
On why such birds strike is re-occuring frequently, Ofangba said that these birds, like other wild life, always make their way to the airport runway,  pointing  that there is a bird control unit at the airport that ensures restriction on them.
He blamed the Bird control Unit of the Federal Airport Authority for not being effective on their job and their supervisors for not monitoring them.
“I have written a letter to the Port Harcourt airport management on the things they can do to control the influx of birds, particularly during  operation hours.
“The flight that had the bird strike is now on maintenance, and we have few flights operating. There are numerous passengers, and how do we survive in business in such situation.

Corlins Walter