"It's murder on the runways at South Africa's airports"

Monday, September 1, 2003

It's murder on the runways at SA's airports 
By Melanie-Ann Feris
South Africa - Cape Argus


There's drama at the airport. The battle lines have been drawn between
molerats, hadedas, warthogs, guinea fowl and impalas on the one hand and
spikes, motorbikes, dogs, cheetahs and walls on the other.

The fight? To prevent the destruction of aircraft and lives

Birds that make their homes on or around South Africa's major airports can
be a major danger to the aircraft using the runways.

Somehow, our feathered friends don't seem to realise how dangerous it is for
them to live there. After all, they have to compete for airspace with
gargantuan steel birds.

But a bird flying into a plane is like a mosquito flying into an elephant -
all that is left of the bird is ... well, a wet spot. 

If the bird is big enough, however, and gets into the plane's engine, it can
cause the plane to crash from major engine damage.

Over the years, there have been a number of bird strikes that have led to
accidents and deaths.

Efforts to prevent tragedies happening took a rather basic approach up until
about five years ago. The birds were simply shot.

Then, through a collaboration with the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA)
and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), more humane methods were tested.

First, staff at Johannesburg International Airport would go out in a red
bakkie and make a lot of noise to frighten the birds away. But after a few
days the birds became so used to the bakkie that it soon failed to ruffle
even mildly any feathers when it went screaming by, hooter blaring.

At the Port Elizabeth and George airports, staff thought the noise of
crackers fired off with gas canisters might act as a deterrent. But the
cheeky birds soon found this so unintimidating that they started perching on
the canisters themselves.

Then someone hit on the obvious. What they needed to do was bring in a
natural predator that the birds would fear instinctively - and indefinitely.

So, along came Tweeny, a two-year-old sheepdog, who had been trained to
chase away the birds.

She goes out with her handler, Sean Soobramoney, a former fireman, to chase
away flocks that could get in the way of airplanes and become a menace.

"Birds will always be afraid of dogs, they will never lose that instinct,"
says Albert Froneman, project leader of the EWT airport safety project.

Still, Tweeny has to go out at different times so the birds don't get used
to her daily routine.

Her main job is to chase off the flocks of birds and keep them away from an
area when an aircraft is about to take off or land.

Johannesburg International is the biggest and busiest airport in Africa. And
with an average of 240 aircraft coming in and taking off from Johannesburg
daily, that's no relaxing task for Tweeny.

The last time there was a serious bird incident at the airport, was a year
ago. A plane was damaged when a large bird was sucked into the engine, but
luckily the pilot managed to turn the aircraft around and land safely.

Froneman says birds larger than 200g are considered dangerous to planes.

Birds that flock to Johannesburg International include guinea fowl, hadedas,
grey-headed gulls and plovers.

Large tracts of alien trees have been removed in which birds had been
nesting, standing water has been cleared and the grass is kept short - all
in an effort to discourage birds from settling at the airport.

"Internationally, there are problems with deer and buck," says Froneman. 

"In Israel they have big problems with migrating flocks; here the problem is
with resident flocks of birds."


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