Timaru flights face more bird disruption: What can airports do to prevent bird strike?

The Air New Zealand Dash-8 made an aborted takeoff over bird concerns. Picture / NZME

Birds on the runway at Timaru’s Richard Pearse Airport have affected Air New Zealand flights for a second day, delaying regional links by almost an hour.

The airline’s chief safety officer Captain David Morgan said that Flight NZ 8190 to Wellington was prevented from taking off this morning due to winged wildlife.

“The aircraft returned to the gate for customers to disembark while the aircraft was checked over as a precaution. The safety of our customers and crew is our number one priority and our pilots are highly trained for these scenarios,” he said.

The service was finally cleared for takeoff again 50 minutes later at 7.45am, and continued on to Wellington.

For much of yesterday Timaru Airport was closed after a ‘bird incident’ caused a dramatic last-minute abort from the service to Wellington.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission began an investigation after Air New Zealand pilots raised concerns with bird activity which caused a further two cancellations.

Morgan said the takeoff from the Dash 8 service to Wellington was rejected due to “pilot concerns about bird activity in the takeoff path”.

The airport did not reopen until yesterday afternoon, shortly before 5pm.

What can airports in New Zealand do to avoid bird strike?

In the Land of Birds, New Zealand unsurprisingly has a robust set of guidelines for wildlife management around its runways.

About four in every 10,000 aircraft movements are affected by birds, according to the NZ Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group.

While bird management at the airports in other countries will resort to culls, NZAWHG promotes more active management.

The group’s chair and former wildlife and ground manager at Auckland Airport, Lizzie Civil, says New Zealand’s airports prefer proactive management of the lands surrounding runways.

Bird balls have been deployed at other airports to make wetlands less attractive to birds. Photo / Bird-X handout

Culling, she told the CAA’s GAP, “just leads to non-airport savvy wildlife coming in and acting erratically, and causing an even higher risk to aircraft”.

Under CAA rule 139 Aerodromes, runways in New Zealand must have a wildlife management plan to address the hazards of animals on the runway.

This includes managing not just birds but sites that may attract wildlife near the airport, such as landfills and wetlands.

In Klagenfurt, Germany, the airport has begun using ‘bird balls’ - inflatable rubber balls - to make wetlands around the runway less attractive to waterfowl.

At London’s Heathrow Airport Birdstrike Defence has trained falconers and hawks to patrol the airspace between flights.

London's Heathrow Airport has trained harrier hawks that keep the runway pigeon free.

“The CAA has not yet approved the use of either a real or ‘robo’ falcon,” says Civil, but it’s likely they could soon appear in the skies around Kiwi aerodromes.

“It’s likely to just be a matter of time before falconry is used.”

Last month Wellington Airport’s wildlife management response faced the unusual problem of a penguin on the runway. While most management plans cover for birds in flight, Manu the blue penguin was safely removed by ground staff and taken into care by Wellington Zoo’s Nest wildlife rehabilitation centre.

A spokesperson for the zoo said the young kororā / blue penguin “will be released at a local beach at some stage in the coming weeks, once their feathers have been fully waterproofed”.