Despite yesterday's incident involving a Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne, Queenstown Airport says the risk of bird strike at the southern airport is low.
Shortly after departing for Melbourne, VA148 was filmed with flames shooting from an engine. It landed in Invercargill without further incident and after an overnight stay, passengers are now on their way to Australia.
Virgin said there was a possible bird strike.
Flames burst out of a Boeing 737’s engine as it took off from Queenstown last night. (Source: 1News)
In a statement today, Queenstown Airport said the Civil Aviation Authority records the incident rate of bird strike at the airport as "low".
Bird activity depended on a range of factors, with oyster catchers, plovers, finches, starlings, and sparrows species of concern.
The Airport Emergency Service (AES) was responsible for wildlife hazard management and monitoring.
Measures taken to deter birds included cutting the grass to keep it both low and unattractive, removing food sources, and using deterrent sounds.
An inspection was carried out minutes before VA148 departed and there were no birds detected.
The New Zealand Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group, NZAWHG, is a group dedicated to preventing bird strikes without always resorting to culling.
Culling could be problematic as it could lead to less "airport savvy" wildlife taking the place of birds near airports and acting erratically.
Most NZ airports meet annually with the NZAWHG to discuss how to reduce the risks of bird strike.
The group's chairperson Lizzie Civil is the former Wildlife and Ground Manager at the Auckland airport and was an Airfield Environmental Officer at NZDF Whenuapai.
She said bird strike at New Zealand airports was about four in 10,000 aircraft movements.
NZAWHG advocated a proactive approach by making the airport ecosystem less attractive to birds, and designing a risk assessment model.
“We assess the consequences of a strike by a particular species of bird," Civil said.
"We do this by factoring in its weight and flocking characteristics – whether it flies solo or in groups – and its behaviour, so whether it’s a rapid or direct flier, or a hoverer, which is higher risk. Then we come up with a risk score.”
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