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The incident took place at 9.30 am Thursday, when captain of the Hyderabad-bound Kingfisher flight IT802 reported seeing a flock of kites in front of the aircraft. The flight, with 108 passengers on board, was rolling in for take-off at the time. Within seconds, one kite hit the aircraft engine and the plane jerked to a stop.
No one was reported injured but officials said increased “bird activity” thereafter stalled operations on main runway for 20 minutes till 10.05 am.
On June 14, a Kingfisher flight carrying Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was aborted following a bird-hit.
DIAL corporate communication official Arun Arora, however, said: “No bird remains or bloodstains were found during mechanical inspection of the aircraft. The pilot suspected a bird-hit and decided to abandon take-off as a safety measure.”
Kingfisher, though, stuck to its stand: that a bird-hit grounded the plane, left the engine damaged and tyres deflated. “DIAL does not own our aircraft,” a senior Kingfisher official said. “Our mechanical inspection proves the engine was damaged by bird-hit. Our captain had also reported seeing a flock of kites.”
Aviation experts say a flock of birds is more dangerous as multiple strikes can completely paralyse an aircraft. Eighty per cent of bird-hits in India are caused by kites.
“We arranged a different aircraft for the passengers. A bird-hit aircraft remains out of commission for a couple of days,” Kingfisher spokesperson Prakash Mirpuri said. The substitute flight took off at 11.06 am.
“Most bird-hits during the monsoon are reported in morning hours. Dead insects, attracted by runway lights in the night, pull in birds,” said Gurcharan Bhature, director-general, Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism.
DIAL’s Arun Arora, meanwhile, said bird-hit rate has decreased at IGI over the past two years. “We have a special bird hazard control team and our follow-me vehicles are also equipped with machines that make sound of predatory animals to scare birds,” he said. “We have employed bird chasers, too.”
Animal farm at IGI
June 14: Varanasi-bound Kingfisher flight IT-331 with Lalu Prasad, wife Rabri Devi and 70 others on board forced to land soon after take-off after hit by bird
June 16: Secondary runway shut for nearly 50 minutes from 9 am after 5 monitor lizards spotted
* In past one month more than 3 cobras, 2 jackals, 10 monitor lizards, 1 civet cat and 1 rat snake rescued from IGI
How others handle birds
JFK airport (New York) and Manchester airport (UK) use falcons to harass birds
New Zealand airports use electrified mats to reduce number of worms that attract seagulls


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