BIRDS STRIKES AT NAIA!
(From left: Lt. Gen. William K. Hotchkiss, CAAP Director General with
Capt. John Andrews, Deputy General for Operations, CAAP)
Bird strike at Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA) does not only poses an imminent danger to
the safety of airlines and its passengers, but also a threat to our country’s economy as well. We may never earn an
upgrade of our aviation safety classification from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to boost
our tourism industry and increase commercial activities in the metropolis and
parts of central Luzon, because of such issue, other than the modernization of our airports.
Lately, there
was tremendous increase of bird strikes at NAIA. There were 49 bird strike recorded
by CAAP from January to September, compared to 30 bird strikes in 2011 and 25
in 2010, which makes the makes the danger more imminent. Thus, NAIA was prompted to issue a warning to
the pilots of the danger to land and take off at NAIA.
It was reported that a Philippine Airlines (PAL)
Flight PR 124 to Manila
was canceled last September after birds got sucked into the plane’s engine in order to
ensure the safety of passengers and crew. Cebu Pacific's Cotabato-Manila flight was
delayed for more than four hours also in the same month.
Earlier
in July, it was reported that PAL flight PR 105 that just
arrived in Manila from Guam
in also suffered from the same incident and the aircraft’s entire set of
fan
blades had to be replaced due to irreparable damage. It was reported by
TV 5 News that from January to July this year, 39 bird strikes have been
reported at
the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), 50 percent more than the
same period last year, data from the Manila International Airport
Authority (MIAA) indicated. These incidents involve aircraft of
Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific, Zest Air, Cathay Pacific, Jet
Star Asia, Air Philippines Express, and Qatar Airways.
The population of migratory
birds nesting at the Las-Piñas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Eco Tourism area located
about 15 kilometer away from NAIA . . .
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