FAAN To Acquire Equipment To Fight Bird Strike

As part of measures to tackle bird strike and other wildlife problems at airports, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said plans have been concluded to take delivery of wildlife fighting equipment from Canada to tackle bird strikes at the airports.
In a release made available after a meeting with Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), FAAN said wildlif issue was one of the challenges faced by airline operators at the tarmac.
According to the release, Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, had explained that the wildlife fighting equipment would reduce bird strike incidents across airports in the country, while also promoting safety and increasing the country’s rating in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
“First of all, we looked at history. What has been happening and causing the high rate of bird strike incidents? Is it that we do not have enough equipment to fight the birds?
“But now, it has changed because we adopted new techniques. Also, we decided to cut the grass at night because if you were cutting grass in the morning, the birds would be everywhere picking the insects. So, we have changed that. Also, we have acquired some wildlife fighting equipment to reduce the impact.
“We were having so many reports on bird strike incidents daily, but now, we may not witness any incident even in two weeks across the country. And most bird strikes that we have now, are little birds that cause no damage to the aircraft.
“We are not thinking of sustaining the current trend, rather we want to improve on whatever we are doing now. We even have some equipment that is coming in from Canada.
“It is not about sustaining it, but we are improving on it because we do not want to go back to where we were before. What we are bringing is a new technology that is mounted on the vehicles, not stationary”, she said.

Corlins Walter