Bird-strike: A Problem at TIA and its Control Measures

Chiranjivi Dahal, Ganesh Gajurel, Sarmila Gnawali, Rasmi Lekhak

Department of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, IOE, Thapathali Campus

Abstract
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is the only international airport in
our country. It is in middle of Kathmandu valley and is surrounded by
hills. The kathmandu valley is highly populated and TIA sits in middle of
dense human settlement and local market places. The polluted rivers on
either side of runway, un-scientific municipal solid waste management, and
emergence of earthworms near the the runway and taxiways after monsoon
rains in late summer are some of the bird attractants. There were many
bird strike incidents in past. The major to be recalled is NAC B757 on
september 2009. Although there were no casaulties or accident but the plane
grounded for a long time causing high financial loss to NAC. After then the
airport authority took several immediate measures to prevent bird strike,
including proper waste management in airport teritorries and shooting the
bird with expert shooter. However with all safety measures the incidnet has
been repeating and bird strike rate is becoming great threaten to TIA.
Keywords: garbage, earthworms,shooting

Preprint submitted to IOE Journal March 26, 2015

1. Introduction
1.1. Discussions of Problem
While birds and airplanes may seem to peacefully share the space at and
around airports, their co-existence is burdened with extreme risk. In the
case of a collision with an aircraft, a single animal has the potential to cause
severe damage,leading in some cases to the loss of the aircraft, its crew and
passengers.
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has had its share of bird strikes to
aircraft. More than 75 incidents of birds slamming into planes during take-
off or landing have occurred at Kathmandus airport since 1990. Three of
them resulted in major damage, and involved a Thai Airways Airbus A300
in October 1996, a Bangladesh Biman DC-10 on Sept 2, 2010 and a Sita Air
aircraft in September 2012.
Officials said TIA has a 52 percent incidence of bird strikes compared
to other airports. Given this context, various national and international
experts gathered here on Friday to discuss Airport Wildlife Hazard Man-
agement, a growing issue worldwide which has also become potential threat
in Nepal with growing air traffic. During the opening of the two-day work-
shop on Airport Wildlife Hazard Management organized by the Civil Avi-
ation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), they pointed out that wildlife hazards
are more severe in Nepal, particularly at TIA which is surrounded by rivers
and forests. According to CAAN, bird strikes happen mainly during the
period September-October, which is the bird migration season in the Kath-
mandu valley. Aircraft are significantly at risk during take-off and landing
as 90 percent of birds fly below an altitude of 2,000 ft, experts said. The
polluted Bagmati and Manohara rivers, paddy cultivation, trees and landfill
sites which are situated within a 15-km radius of TIA have been attracting
birds to the area. Expert say that when a bird weighing 3 kg slams into an
aircraft at 150 km per hour, the impact is equivalent to being struck by a
1,800-kg hammer on a 1-sq ft area. A CAAN report shows that there are 39
species of birds in the area around TIA. Among them, five are large types,
10 are medium-sized and 24 small-sized. The black kite is a major threat,
and bird strikes happen mainly during the period September-October.

The Kathmandu valley along has more the 500 bird species. Topography,
climate. greenery, wetlands and unmanaged waste in the valley are just ideal
for birds. The International Airport itself is established right in the middle

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of valley. The airport is surrounded by green paddy fields and rivers which
is big source of food and water for birds. Along with that the Pasupatianth
temple and ’Bankali Jungle’ a forest in territories of TIA, offers open food
and shelter for birds. This birds are causing major problem to the aeroplanes
landing and taking off from TIA.

1.2. History of Bird Strike

Bird strikes were not considered as problem during early yearrs of the
airport. The first major bird strike involved Thai Airways Airbus 300 in
1996. The aircraft remain grounded for 4 days in Kathmandu. About 5-6
eagles were found dead on the runway.

NAC aircraft B757-200 was hit by a bird on September 29,2000. The air-
craft was grounded for a long time causing great financial as well as goodwill
loss to NAC. Similarly on June 30,2014 Jet airways aircraft was hit by a bird
when it was just two to three km away from TIA runway. Averting a major
accident, it had landed safely. Another major accident at TIA include Sita
Air Dornier crash on 27th September 2012. Despite of having its own bird
killer team at TIA the plane was hit by a bird, killing all 19 on board. The
plane burst into flames shortly after it took off from TIA.
In 2013, the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu has witnessed 22
bird strikes, according to Nepal’s aviation authority.A Tara Airplane carrying
passengers from Jumla to Nepalgunj in mid-western Nepal made emergency
landing at Surkhet airport shortly after hitting birds upon takeoff on June.
The Boeing 737 of the Mumbai-based company was about to land at the
TIA runway when the bird hit the left engine of the aircraft at around 12 pm
on Dec 2014. It caught fire on left wing and the fire was immediately taken
under control after it landed and all the passengers were safe.
With all safety measures recently on 22 March 2015 a Thai Air aircraft
suffered a bird strike on its right engine while landing at TIA. No major
damages occurred but the plane grounded for 6 hours before it could returned
to Bangkok.

1.3. Previous Studies on Bird Strike

There have been few studies realated to wildlife management and solid
waste management at TIA in the past. This includes

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 • Bird strike hazards associated with landfill sites in the Kathmandu
valley and bird strike prevention recommendation, by personnel from
the CSL Bird Strike Avoidance Team, UK,1999.

• Solid waste management in Nepal, report on fact finding mission, by a

German Team on solid waste management,1996.

• Study on bird strike risks at TIA, by a joint German-English Team,

1998.

• Workshop on bird strike prevention and assesment of wildlife hazard

management program at TIA,by Department of Agriculture , USA,
2000.

1.4. TIA Environment

• TIA when initially started in 1949 was remote from city area. Human
settlement around the airport was almost non-existent.

• There are two rivers around TIA. They are Manohara in the east and
Bagmati in the north and west and they are very polluted that attract
kites, crows, and other birds in search of food.

• Organic fertilizer is commonly used on agricultural field within 2 km

of airport. This practices causes emergence of earthworms and insects
that attracts birds.

• The city is filled with temples which provide open food to birds. Spe-
cially the Pasupatinath, Boudhanath and Changunarayan are with in
few km from TIA.

• There are jungles areas, 1-3 km from TIA at Pasupatinath, Guheshwori

and Gokarna, which provide safe nesting places for many birds.

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2. Current Mitigation Measures
1. After monsoon rains, earthworm emerge from areas and crawl onto
edges of the taxiways and runways. A crew has been formed to sweep
the areas of runway and taxiways. The crew cleans the runway and
taxiway in morning and continue to watch these areas during the day
to make sure no insects and worms are left on the area.
2. A Hunters Squad is active round the clock at TIA since decades. They
make regular rounds in the airport and scare the birds away by the way
of blowing sharp sirens, explosion of gas cannons, use of pyrotechnic
lights as well as live ammunisation if needed.
3. Remote controlled high pitched wailers are placed evenly around the
runway and played when required.
4. All airports personnel including resturant owners as well as locals out-
side the TIA are made aware of the importance of maintaining clean-
liness around the airport.

3. Importance of Research
Kathmandu is often considered as one of the dirtest cities with garbage
strewn all round. International Civil Aviation Organisation suggests that
waste management facilities such as landfill site and garbage dumps be no
closer than 13 km circle of any airport. However the Teku Solid Waste
Clearance Depot of the Kathmandu Metropolis is only 4 km from the runway.
Similaly Guheswori Waste water Treatment Plant is just single km away from
runway. This has been favourite site for birds of prey. Airport Authorities
are concerned about the issues but they blame that government should take
steps to solve this problem. Not only garbage has been a major problem,
birds in most cases are attracted towards earthworms in the nearby paddy
fields of Manohara. With no safety measures for these issues TIA is still
unsecure for aeroplanes taking off and landing. So TIA should immediately
address the above mentioned causes and make the flight safe.

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4. Methodology
4.1. International Practices
Let us take Munich International Airport as an example. Unilke many
other international airports, Munich does a lot more to prevent bird strike
than just startle the birds. There are employees who are on site throughout
the airport’s operating hours and remain in constant contact with air traffic
control. They use various methods to drive off animals that pose a potential
threat to safety. Often they drive up in a vehicle and blow the horn. Pa-
trols use pyro-acoustics startle animals. This involves firing flares that make
a bang, whistle or flash after a delay. Efforts are carried out on creating
and maintaining biotopes so as not to attract birds to the airport and its
immediate surrounding area. Two-thirds of the airport site is covered with
greenery but grassy areas around the airport are mown as seldom as possible.
As further safegaurd, under the terms of agreements between farmers, they
are not permitted to use liquid fertilizer or sludge on the fields within 600
meters of the airport perimeter.

4.2. What TIA need to do?

The most important thing is ICAO Airport Service Manual Part-3. The
stated measures includes: Habitat management, site modification, repellent
techniques, applications of emerging technology. Some of the measures are
applied by TIA but it is high time that all methods stated above be used
inside and outside TIA. Current auditory scarers at TIA include propane
cannons but there are more auditory scarers that can be used. Such as digi-
tally recorded distress sounds with several speakers,radio controlled aircraft,
Fireworks, and use of Lasers. In context of TIA one of the important factor
to be considered is cleanliness around the Airport premises. The Sewage
management system of city is very poor. The 500m perimeter of TIA must
be freed from Solid and Liquid Waste.

4.3. Recommendations
A team from GTZ studied the bird strike problem at TIA from 18-29
August 1998 and produced a final report on their findings and recommenda-
tions. Since the publication of their report two significant changes related to
the bird strike situation at TIA have occured.
1. the landfill site at gokarna (about 3km from TIA) was closed on July
2000.

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 2. The municipal waste that were dumped on the bank of Bagmati river
within 500m of north end of runway was stopped.
The ICAO staff made a 1 day visit on December 2000 and inspected
wildlife hazards at TIA. The team wrote a summary of each inspection de-
scribing problems observed and recommended solutions.
The CAAN staff had their own investigations. Most of conclusions and
recommendations made by GTZ, ICAO and CAAN reports are to be agreed
till date. Here I reinforce certain recomendations made in these reports.

4.4. Bird Strike Database

It is necessary that all the bird and other wildlife strike incidences must
be recorded in a database so that nature of problem can be analyzed and
understood.

4.5. Garbage and Food Waste Control

Must garbage and food waste are seen along the Bagmati river just north
of the airport and in the surrounding community and market area. Manure
piles in agricultural fields north and east of airport are also bird attrac-
tant.The koteswor market area south of TIA also generates much uncovered
food waste. TIA should take immediate step in solving these problems.

4.6. Development of Bird Control Unit

A Bird Control Unit(BCU) consisting of personnel trained in bird disper-
sal and habitat management techniques, must be developed and equipped.A
qualified biologist trained in bird identification should be employed to advice
the bird control unit. BCU should have access to a vehicle all times and
equipped with basic bird dispersal equipment.

4.7. Habitat Management on Airpot

Grass is managed well at TIA and it should be maintanined at 10-15 cm
height. But on February 7, 2012 fire caught the dry grass of TIA. It took four
hours for eight fire engines to put out the fire. Not only inside the airport, all
unnecessary trees, brush and shrubs outside the perimeter of airports should
be cleared.

4.8. Autoamted Bird Dispersal Acoustic Systems

It is recommended TIA should purchase automated bird dispersal acoustic
system to reduce bird strike.

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5. What flight crews need to do?
Although it is not possible to avoid all bird strike, flight crews can take
steps to reduce the chance of bird strike event. If a bird strike does occur, the
appropriate action can improve the flight crew’s ability to maintain control
of the airplane and land safely. Boeing suggest on their training manual that
following strategies must be carried out.

• Delay takeoff or landing in the presence of bird activity.

• Below 10000 feet, keep speed below 250 knots if operationally possible.

• Below 2000 feet, climb at the maximum rate to reduce the flight time
exposure to a strike hazar.

• Descend with idle power and avoid extended low altitude level flight
particularly over water courses, nature reserves, or other areas of known
or expected bird activity.

• Avoid or minimize maneuvering at low altitude to avoid birds.

• If bird strike occurs above 80 knots during takeoff and there is no

immediate evidence of engine failure then the preferred option is to
continue with takeoff followed by an immediate return.

5.1. Assumptions and Limitations

This research is limited because no any finaicial anylysis could be carried
out. This is due to the fact that we didn’t easily get data. The reference
data are taken from national news papers. The assummtions are made that
information given on newspaper are true. This research is limited since it only
talks about bird scarng technology. It doesn’t contain the birds population
in the valley and its increasing rate. Future research should include cost
benefit analysis of application of Avain Radar at TIA.

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6. Conclusions and Recommendations
A number of serious incidents have already occured. On-airport bird
control measure are the prime risk mitigation measure, but it has been es-
tablished that robust measures are necessary beyond the airport. Local au-
thorities must take their responsibility. Landowners near airport need to
take measures to minimise the use of their land by birds. There are some
problems which need local authorities, environmental agencies and national
governments to pay attention in air safety issues. Their commitment is key
to achieve risk reduction.

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 7. References
[1] Dolbeer, R. A. 2001. Recommendations for wildlife hazard management
at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. Report for the
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and International Civil Aviation Au-
thority (COSCAP-South Asia). 21 January. 11 pages.

[2] www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine

[3] http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/birdstrike2001/13/?utmsource=digitalcommons.unl.edu2Fbird

[4] http://www.ekantipur.com/

[5] http://www.nepalresearch.com/infrastructure/aviation.html

[6] http://thehimalayantimes.com/

[7] http://therisingnepal.org.np/epaper/view?paper=risingnepal

[8] http://www.caanepal.org.np

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