Schiphol Airport employs 20 pigs for humane safety experiment

Schiphol's porcine heroes: 20 pigs have been brought in for bird control. Photo / Alwin Kroon, Unsplash

Schiphol Amsterdam employs 2,324 staff, including 179 air traffic controllers, but pig farmer is a very new hire for Europe's busiest airport. Yet this new position has an important role to play for aircraft safety.

Josse Haarhuis and his head of 20 swine have been given free rein between the twin runways of the international airport. The six-week experiment is thought to be the first of its kind in an attempt to reduce the risk of bird strikes.

The 26.7 square km airport is the third-largest by area, and due to its place in the low wetlands is a haven for geese.

There are already 20 bird controllers employed at the airport, to keep the airspace in front of passenger jets clear. However, around this time of the year, the birds flock to feed on waste crops and sugar beet which are left in the fields.

Pig sty of the skies: The 20 animals have been brought in to control geese at Amsterdam airport. Photo / Schiphol Airport

This is where the pigs come in:

"The pigs were immediately brought to the field within 12 hours of the sugar beet harvest on Tuesday," Haarhuis told De Telegraaf. "They eat the crop residue so that there will be nothing left for the geese to get."

It is hoped the two-hectare pigsty between runways 18R-36L and 18C-36C will put off the birds.

Birds are a big problem for airports, particularly one as busy as Schiphol. There are around 150 bird strike incidents a year, with 6.6 birds hit per 10,000 aircraft movements.

KLM #KL515 to Zanzibar was forced to return to Amsterdam due to a birdstrike https://t.co/FtOc2g9UqK pic.twitter.com/js37JqIwOg

— RadarBox (@RadarBox24) February 28, 2021

A bird - particularly one the size of an Egyptian goose - can cause a lot of damage to an aircraft engine. In February a KLM Boeing 777 service to Tanzania was advised to turn around six hours into its flight after engine problems from hitting a bird.

The team of bird controllers have resorted to extreme measures to control the population of birdlife around the runways. From introducing harrier hawks and falconry to noise cannons and lasers, there are few things they won't try to scare birds off the landing strips. However, not all solutions have been so humane.

In 2014 the cull of 7000 geese was signed off by the airport to combat a flock of unruly Egyptian Geese.

However, it is hoped that the use of pigs will reduce the Airport's need to cull more animals, choosing instead to live and let fly.