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Bird strikes and other runway hazards

In aviation, bird strikes refer to incidents in which aircraft collide with birds. While one might think that bird strikes are unfortunate for the birds who are very unlikely to survive such collisions, they are in fact a serious safety hazard for aircraft and have caused fatal accidents as well as significant damage to airplanes. Quite simply, airplanes travel so fast that birds are unable to see them in time and avoid them. While bird strikes can occur at any time, even while cruising at high altitudes, in the vast majority of cases they occur when airplanes are flying at less than 3,000 ft as this is where most birds are to be found. For large passenger airliners the danger is greatest just after take-off or when coming in to land. The principal danger is that of a bird being sucked into one of the engines (known as engine ingestion). This significantly affects the airplane's performance or can even cause it to crash. When it's a case of a multiple strike (ingestion of a flock of birds), these risks are more serious still. Often the safest course for a pilot who suspects damage in one of the engines is to shut it down and follow the same procedures as in a case of engine failure.

Airports often emit high frequency sounds to frighten the birds away. Measures such as this can provide short-term solutions, but often the birds return. Constant vigilance is required on the part of airport personnel (those who carry out runway inspections in particular) and pilots who are airborne. They can alert controllers whenever they spot flocks of birds that may threaten other aircraft.

Aircraft manufacturers also have an important role to play and they try to minimize the damage that birds might cause to the engines or other parts of the aircraft. The cockpit windshield, for example, on a commercial airliner needs to be fully resistant to collisions with even the largest of birds.

While birds are the most significant hazard around runways, they are not the only ones, hazards can also be caused by other animals.

Objects or debris on the runway can be just as lethal as animal, aircraft or vehicle intrusions. In 2000 a small piece of titanium debris from a recently departed aircraft (about 50 cm long by 3 cm wide) on a runway at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport caused a tyre burst and engine fire of a departing Concorde, leading to the deaths of 104 people. The lessons of this accident have led to an increased frequency of runway inspections at many locations.