Delhi-bound GoAir flight hit by a bird

A Delhi-bound GoAir flight on Wednesday morning, having 168 passengers on board, suffered a bird-hit immediately after take-off. However, the flight landed back in Ahmedabad safely. As a precautionary measure, the flight GoAir 720 was eventually cancelled and the with help of other airlines. Passengers were accommodated on different flights.

The flight that took off at 8.50 am remained stranded till evening, until it was declared safe to fly.

Confirming the same, Manoj Gangal, Airport Director, said: "The aircraft suffered a bird hit, from Kite, immediately after take-off. However, all passengers are safe. I had immediately called for a meeting of other airline station managers to inquire about no-show or vacant seats to accommodate the affected passengers. Some even had their interviews. Of 168 passengers, nearly 31 cancelled their tickets. We managed to accommodate the rest."

"Specialist engineers flew down from Mumbai to inspect and check on the impact of the bird-hit. In the evening, the flight was declared safe to fly again."

Interestingly, to bring bird-hit incidents at the airport to nil, airport officials, in a first, have recently imported a machine that has high capacity grass cutting and collecting power with its mowing height, discouraging birds on the runway. The machine imported from Holland is extremely popular in the West, and known for maintaining local and international airports. The first such machine in India, has adjustable height and can also cut wet grass. The director had said then, "Our concern was that while we had grass cutters, the same left on the surface would again attract birds. The new machine also collects eggs of the birds. We have also taken help from Anand Agricultural University for a spray that prevents grass from growing." The machine, costing nearly Rs 52 lakh, can cover 3-4 acres of area in one hour.

In 2010, Ahmedabad airport was the third most prone to bird hits among all airports in the country, but then steps were taken to bring it under control. To scare away birds, airport authorities use firecrackers, reflecting films, zone guns and laser guns. Study at regular intervals have been carried out since past few years with the recent one by Gujarat Ecological Educational Research (GEER) Foundation that had found 41 species of birds in the airport vicinity.

Among the recommendations, one of the most important recommendation was to focus on dealing with red wattled lapwing (Titodi), along with Kites as they remain active even at night, posing a threat to aircrafts.