Another one bites the dust: PAL reports another bird strike

The Philippine Airlines on Tuesday reported another bird strike involving one of its Airbus A320 aircraft.  

 

In a statement, the flag carrier said that the bird strike occurred on Monday evening, as the plane was landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. “Initial findings revealed bloodstains on the wing area of the Airbus A320 that landed Manila.”

 

No one was reported injured among the 152 passengers aboard the plane.

 

“No serious damage on the aircraft's wing and two CFM jet engines were found by mechanics of Lufthansa Technik Philippines after a maintenance check,” PAL said. The plane went back in service the following day, Tuesday, October 23.

 

However, the Manila International Airport Authority was unaware of any bird strikes involving PAL. 

 

Joseph Agustin, MIAA’s airport grounds operations and safety division chief, told GMA News Online that they have yet to receive PAL’s “pilot report” regarding the incident. He explained that airlines are compelled to report a bird strike, as instructed by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

 

“It took [takes] about five days bago namin ma-receive ‘yung mga ganyang [bird strike] report,” he added.

 

Agustin detailed that what the MIAA does have is a PAL flight accident report recorded Monday, when its plane - PR 431 - suffered from a lightning strike at the Narita Airport in Japan.

 

Agustin speculated that there might have been a “miscommunication” between the airport authorities and the airline regarding whether it was a “bird” or “lightning” strike.

 

But, if there was indeed a bird strike, this adds to the 49 cases reported from January to August this year.

 

What type of bird?

 

Determining the kinds of birds involved in bird strikes has caused much consternation and gnashing of beaks between airport authorities and environmental group, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines.

 

MIAA’s Agustin claimed that a bird sanctuary, the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area, was a “major contributor” to the bird strike incident at the airport.

 

Environmentalists dispute this.

 

The WBCP had earlier argued that resident Philippine birds like the kalapati or pigeon are the species involved in bird strikes, contrary to MIAA’s assertion that wild or migratory birds are the culprits. Migratory birds are the usual visitors to the to the Las Piñas-Parañaque sanctuary.

 

In a visit by WBCP and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to NAIA on Tuesday afternoon, ornithologist and WBCP member Arne Jensen said that he saw five kinds of bird species around NAIA, namely: tagak, tikling, maya, moorhen and brown shrike.

 

Of the five species, Jensen said, only the brown shrike was a migratory bird, with the moorhen classified as migratory as well as endemic to the Philippines.

 

The DENR, meanwhile, counted about 91 birds on NAIA grounds, most of which were tagak or cattle egret, a non-migratory bird. — DVM, GMA News