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Bird strike forces cancellation of US-bound flight at NAIA
(Updated 2:38 p.m.) - A bird strike forced the cancellation of a Guam-bound flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 before noon Wednesday.
Many passengers of the United Airlines flight (UA-190) were irate as they were not given accommodations or other considerations, radio dzBB's Ariel Fernandez repoorted.
The report said the bird strike occurred at about 10 a.m., before the United Airlines plane was to take off for Guam.
No one was initially reported injured in the incident, the report said.
United Airlines on Wednesday told GMA News Online that they would not be issuing any statement on the matter.
Past bird strikes
Previous bird strikes this year include one in June, when a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Manila from Laoag International Airport was canceled.
In April, a Manila-bound Cebu Pacific flight was grounded at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City when birds were sucked into the plane's engines as it was about to take off.
Authorities have been looking for a solution to bird strikes, which often result in flight cancellations and are potentially deadly.
"Hindi kasi lahat ng bird strike, nararamdaman ng piloto,” Philippine Airlines pilot Capt. Enrique Clemente said in a previous report on News to Go.
From January to August 2012, 49 bird strikes were recorded at NAIA, prompting Manila International Airport Authority to improve their counter-bird strike equipment.
"We have this plan to procure extended range acoustic device. It can penetrate the approach up to three to five kilometers away from the threshold of the runway. Some airports have this already," Alvin Candelaria, OIC of MIAA's Airport Operations Department said last year.
Another solution was to construct a manmade lagoon that birds can go to, GMA News' Mark Zambrano reported.
Only a few kilometers from NAIA is Freedom Island, which serves as a temporary home to over 80 kinds of birds, and is directly below the flight path of airplanes, the report said.
Only a few kilometers from NAIA is Freedom Island, which serves as a temporary home to over 80 kinds of birds, and is directly below the flight path of airplanes, the report said.
"The first step is to identify the birds, what are these birds that are hazardous to the aircraft. Once we know it, the best possible way is to recreate a habitat for them near the airport, to attract them to that habitat,"' Michael Yu of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines said.
On the other hand, solutions must not affect the natural habitat and ecosystem in the area surrounding the airport, the report said.
"We are not into it, to relocate. It takes so much time to relocate the habitat, and besides you need so much financial requirements to relocate it," Rey Aguinaldo of DENR-NCR said, adding that they did not have enough manpower to handle the area, either. —With a report from Carmela G. Lapeña/KG, GMA News
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