Financial Express: New Delhi: Friday, January 12, 2018.
An unusual
event on Wednesday night caused disruption in the functioning of flights at the
Ahmedabad Airport. A cow entered the runway at Ahmedabad airport last night!
Shockingly, it even led to international flights being affected. The director
said that they have ordered an inquiry and have sought a report on it.
Confirming this, Airports Authority Of India chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra
said,”A cow had entered through cargo side. But was controlled soon.”
The menace of
animal incursions at airports is rising. Recently, in a shocking disclosure, it
was disclosed that a number of wildlife strikes at all Indian airports
increased by nearly three times in the last seven years. Astonishingly, from
January to October 2017 on an average more than three strikes a day were
reported. The data was put into light by Indian Express under the Right to
Information (RTI) act. This is despite government and aviation regulator’s
aggressive measures to reduce the number of wildlife strike incidents-including
proactive measures against illegal slaughterhouses, garbage dumps, regular
inspection of areas surrounding airports and stakeholder education.
Records
obtained from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reveals that 976
wildlife strikes were reported in the first 10 months of 2017. It is more than
double of what was experienced in 2010. In 2010 the number of wildlife strikes
was reported as 380.
Notably, as
per data sourced from the Airports Authority of India, the number of aircraft movements
has also increased over the years. In 2010, 13.69 lakh aircraft movements were
recorded, whereas in 2017 up to October, 18.37 lakh movements were recorded.
Landing and take-off of an aircraft are considered to be a separate count of
movement which means that one landing and one take-off of the same aircraft on
the same flight will be considered as two movements.
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