[sadhuji]

Aeroplanes are the most convenient means of communication in the present day – air travel has made the world smaller and people can hop from one place to another with ease thanks to the invention of airborne machines by the Wright Brothers way back in 1903. However, air travel is fraught with dangers of bird hits – when a tiny bird dashes against an aircraft travelling at high speed, the impact can make unbelievable damages, sometimes resulting in crash landing and loss of human lives and property. Bird menaces near airports usually stem from the dirty surroundings that attract the birds – hence, maintaining strict cleanliness around airports is important. Added to these is the increasing threat from animals that stray onto the runways and pose serious dangers to aircraft during takeoff and landing. The reasons here can be attributed to the dwindling forest covers for the animals – leopards have ventured into cities like Nashik several times. Now nilgais have encroached into airport at Kanpur, and deer, cheetals and wild boars have invaded the airport at Nagpur. If these are to be checked, we must return the forest to the animals.

Dog-hit plane stuck on runway (27/3/2008)

Twenty-five passengers of a Hyderabad-bound Kingfisher airline flight had a miraculous escape after the landing gear of the turboprop ATR 72-500 aircraft collapsed seconds before take-off at the HAL Airport here on Thursday night. The aircrafts nosewheel had hit a dog that strayed into the runway area.

http://deccanherald....tion=updatenews

Lucky escape for passengers as flight hits deer on runway (8/3/2008)

Nagpur, March 8: Around 135 passengers aboard Indigo’s Pune-New Delhi flight (6E 136) had a providential escape when the flight encountered a deer on the runway at 7.40 pm on Friday. Luckily, the flight took off and reached New Delhi safely around 10 pm, but the animal lay smashed on the airstrip.

http://www.indianexp...ory/282007.html

Air India plane hits 'nilgai' on Kanpur runway (28/2/2008)

KANPUR: In yet another incident highlighting the chaotic and dangerous conditions prevailing on runways in the country, a 48-seater Air India regional flight hit a nilgai while landing at the Chakeri airport in Kanpur on Thursday.

http://timesofindia....how/2824122.cms

Wild animals a menace for Nagpur airport (15/10/2007)

NAGPUR: The orange city’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, spread over an area of 1460 acres, is home to wild animals - neelgais, cheetals and wild boars, to name a few. …. While the bird-hits are a rare phenomenon, animals straying onto the runway are a routine - a menace that airport authorities have got tired of.

http://www.dnaindia....?newsid=1127912

Airport calls in hunters to remove the hares clogging up its runways (13/6/2007 – in Rome)

A plague of hares has created such havoc at Milan’s city airport that the runways are to be closed while a band of intrepid hunters tries to round up the animals.

http://www.timesonli...icle1929328.ece

[Hippie at Heart]

Sadhu Ji Much as I shudder at the thought of that mongrel who I noticed scrambling away from the main runway to side flanks, tail duly tucked in between legs, and front landing gear leaving ground almost the same time. I realized that some other parts of country have more junglee denizens to hit on runway then most metros. So wildlife isn’t really dead it seems!! We shot last Panther of Delhi way back in 1974 at central Delhi Ridge and drove everything away as far as the south ridge. Now at central Ridge I only see some mangy Jackal in dead of night, and such appearances are getting rare. Two years ago I saw a mother Blue Bull giving birth to a calf and staying behind clump of trees for about 10 days, on a pocket of land that survived human greed unleashed in name of real estate development, in Gurgaon.

The problem is not the wildlife or dogs on loose or birds doing what they are best at. It’s the top guns at DGCA and AAI that continues to look at this matter with utter apathy and amusement at best. Carors are being spent on so called development of airports and hardly a thought for the dangers at runways. I happen to read copy of contract the GOI and aviation authorities have entered with GMR to ‘modernize’ few of the biggest airports in India, and not a word about what they intend to do with security measures on runway, if this is concern they have for metros, where does ports of Nagpur and Kanpur counts? But yes DGCA babus are very quick to point out relevant provisions about height restriction clearances of high rise buildings, adding Ho Jayega and looking askance at you if you still haven’t got the drift…

Edited by Hippie at Heart, 29 March 2008 - 02:15 AM.

[Hyderabadi]

Sadhuji, these current day experiences are pretty horryfiying - your post brings back a couple of memories:

Around 1986, I was working for a national travel agency and being the youngest and most inexperienced staff member in their outbound dept. (promoting tours to SE Asia) I was sent by train to Rajahmundry to make advance arrangements for the bigwigs arriving later. Bad 'STD' connections no courier service etc., was one of the reasons I was sent there as the advance party. Why did the bigwigs want to go to such a remote place, that's a whole different story!    

I made the necessary hotel arrangements, fixed appointments and led a convoy of three cars on rural roads to Madhurapudi Airport. The terminal was like a small police thana, and the airport staff were chasing cattle off the runway in a old Willys Jeep which broke down after a while on the, err.. runway. People , mostly villagers who came to watch this show twice a week and others (like me) ran across and shoved the Jeep off the runway...

Even before this, when my Dad went to Japan in 1969 as part of a farmers exchange group, we went to the 'Old Hyderabad Airport" not the current 'Old Begumpet Airport', yes there was one more before that. The first Hyderabad Airport was a little 'standard yellowish govt.' building, with some pretty awesome nets rotating on top, they also had a green / red light on top, we could see it's rays from all the way across town some evenings!

This amazing airport,  at the time seemed pretty BIG to me (I was 6yrs old then).

As we went to the airport to see my Dad off, the gate closed for an earlier flight (much like a railway crossing, we had to drive across the runway to get to the airport), and we had to give the gatekeeper a 'nazrana' - baksheesh / tip in other words - when he came to the Willys Jeep we were in to ask us if it was OK to open the gate.

[crvlvr]

Atelast with dogs, this seems like one way of addressing the stray dog problem in India.

[Satty]

Today's TOI report on Bangalore' new Devanahalli airport:
"There is a new threat to the Bangalore International Airport..........jackals, pangolins, snakes, monitor lizards, cats, mongoose...."
Wow!