Conflicting traffic: characterization of the hazards of birds flying across an airport runway

Abstract

Bird-aircraft collisions cost millions of dollars to aviation globally and cause deaths. We designed and tested a protocol to study the hazards to aircraft from birds flying across runways where aircraft rotate and climb during take-off. We recorded birds and flight height of birds flying across runway 03L at OR Tambo International Airport, South Africa. A total of 7,938 birds of pigeon size or larger crossed a 400 m length of runway during 14 h and 15 min, a rate of 8.8 birds per minute; there were 200 aircraft taking off during this period. The biggest bird-aircraft collision hazard is posed by African Sacred Ibis and Grey-headed Gull. Respectively, these species contribute a mean of 111 kg per 10 min and 47.2 kg per 10 min biomass flying across the runway. We identify possible management options to reduce the hazard of bird-aircraft collisions. Our survey protocol and data treatment is easy to use, will add additional and important definition to existing activities to reduce bird-aircraft collisions and can provide comparable hazard information to aerodrome authorities and pilots