Birds become a problem at Moscow's first airport

Published: 2/10/2000

Since last autumn, over 1,000 birds have been shot in the vicinity of Sheremetyevo Airport. The cull is as a result of the damage caused by birds colliding with aircraft, most often involving the steel turbine blades. According to Mr Morinsky, Head of Flight Safety at Aeroflot, in 1999, there were 24 such incidents, necessitating the replacement of seven Russian-manufactured engines. The situation is even worse for Russian airlines when birds collide with more expensive foreign-manufactured aircraft. Most of the incidents occur during take-off and landing and the problem is by no means unique to Shermetyevo. For example, the US military and aviation base in the state of Washington uses specially trained falcons to scare birds away. Sheremetyevo recently organised its own service to deal with the problem in response to Aeroflot"s insistence that it was vital in the interests of flight safety. It now plans to develop methods of managing the birds" behaviour, in order to protect the birds as well as the aircraft.

Article ID: 1404