BIRD strike can bring an aircraft down, so Tamworth Regional Airport is taking some explosive and cracking action to avoid disaster.
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The airport is using gas cannons that let off loud noises at various intervals and stockwhips to scare the birds away and avoid them striking aircraft.
Airport reporting officer Len Klumpp said their newest cannon could be set to randomly let off the loud bangs and spread the noise further, so the birds didn’t get used to it and become complacent.
“This year and last are the worst we’ve had, which all relates to the drought,” he said.
The biggest issues are with ibis, black kites, corellas and galahs.
“There have been a lot of kites lately,” Mr Klumpp said.
“There were more than 200 on one runway and 150 on another that we had to get rid of. Kites love airports because of the thermals and we have had a grasshopper plague which attracts them.”
Mr Klumpp said scaring the birds away and keeping them from interfering with aircraft was probably their most important job.
“We have to make sure the runways are safe,” he said.
“A bird strike can bring a plane down, so we have to keep onto it. We also use stockwhips and sirens on our utes.”
He said birds were such a problem at the airport, that scaring them away took airport workers from the other jobs they had to do.