Birds not the issue, safety is

Finally, somebody is doing something about the alarming rise in incidents of bird strikes being reported at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Jose Angel Honrado and Parañaque Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. are now pushing for a new ordinance to ban the breeding, raising and domestication of pigeons and other bird species, within a 2.5-mile radius of the airport.

Specifically, the ban will cover a bird sanctuary (take note: man-made and not a natural sanctuary) along the Las Piñas-Parañaque coastal lagoon which sits along the flight path leading to NAIA.

Not to be alarmist, but it is actually within a hair-raising proximity of just under two kilometers from the centerline of NAIA runways 13-31 and 6-24.

Aviation officials and safety experts have called the sanctuary a flight safety risk. In fact, they believe it is behind the alarming rise in bird strikes last year: 23 to be exact, as compared to only eight in 2009.

Make no mistake, bird strikes are dangerous. It was birds that took out both engines of the US Airways Airbus A320 that crashed into the Hudson Bay in New York in 2009.

Had it not been for the skill and experience of the pilot, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, all 155 passengers would have died. Nobody should have to find out for themselves if their pilot is as good as Sullenberger.

On Sept. 18, 2009, American Eagle Airlines Flight 5183 from Dallas Texas to Lawton Oklahoma, collided with over 100 pigeons during takeoff. The takeoff was aborted and the aircraft sustained minor damage. Around 34 whole birds were recovered, hundreds of body parts were also recovered. The aircraft returned safely to the gate with no injuries

Just yesterday, Philippine Airlines (PAL) president Jimmy Bautista told me that they easily spend around $1 million every year just to put their planes back to tip-top condition following encounters with birds.

Two months ago, he said that their Boeing 777 was hit by a bird in Canada (PAL flies to Vancouver) that damaged the engine cover and for which PAL had to spend thousands of dollars for the repair. It even had to ground the plane for a week. Talking about loss of potential revenues. Good that it only hit the engine cover. Worse if the engine blades are damaged, which according to Bautista can be very costly to repair.

Most accidents occur when the bird hits the windscreen or flies into the engines. These cause annual damages that have been estimated at $400 to $600 million within the United States alone and up to $1.2 billion to commercial aircraft worldwide. It is also said that this problem has resulted in over 200 worldwide deaths since 1988

Which is why Honrado and Bernabe are willing to take on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and influential environmentalist groups which are protecting the habitat.

But according to the environmentalists, their true adversary is the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), which according to reports is planning to re-develop an area near the habitat. 

This, they say, poses a threat to the sanctuary, which they maintain should be protected as it is the last of its kind in Metro Manila.

While the jury is still out on whether it was the bird or the egg that came first, what is well-known is that before the habitat, there was already a reclamation.

Originally part of a major reclamation in the ’70s, the property was eventually abandoned and occupied by informal settlers. Fearing the sea would take it back, the DENR hit upon the bright idea of experimenting with mangroves to retain the land. But it was not just the lush vegetation and the cool shades that eventually attracted the birds.

Being a former squatters’ colony, the area had, and still has, a garbage problem, a come-on for many birds that are essentially scavengers.

The issue could be water under the bridge soon. That is, if the environmentalists get their wish of a waterway from the Manila Bay to sustain the accidental sanctuary, and a bridge connecting it to the new development for easier access. 

This goes well with the development masterplan, which according to a recent newspaper article, actually involves a sea-ward reclamation and the retention of the sanctuary as an eco-tourism site.

Unfortunately, that whole debacle is neither here nor there. The real pressing issue, as correctly identified by Honrado and Bernabe is the safety of airplane passengers.

Passengers will always be at peril, and will be in greater peril, as long as the bird habitat is there, attracting more feathered transient every year. Commercial air carriers, including Philippine Airlines (PAL) are reportedly spending huge amounts – millions of pesos – to repair engines when these birds are sucked into them.

While the ordinance stops people from contributing to the growing bird population in the area, it cannot do anything to prevent other bird species from flocking into the flight path of airplanes.

What must be done is for Malacanang to put its foot down and do something about the real squatters – the DENR. That habitat would not have been there in the first place if the DENR, under then President Arroyo, did not encroach on the property.

And what of the birds? Unfortunately for our feathered friends, they may have to find a new habitat. It actually makes sense to have sanctuaries in provinces near the city, which can benefit from eco-tourism.

Other countries have found more ingenious ways of dealing with this problem. Reuters recently reported that New York City plans to capture pesky geese that threaten planes departing area airports and send them to Pennsylvania to be cooked for meals for the poor.

New York’s plan is aimed at avoiding incidents like the forced landing of a US Airways plane in the Hudson River in January 2009 after a flock of errant geese were caught in the engine during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.

Mass culls to clear the geese from the area were authorized after the National Transportation Safety Board positively identified the remains of Canada geese in the engine of the aircraft.

The city will pay for the capture and transport of the geese to facilities in Pennsylvania where they will be distributed to Pennsylvania food banks, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said. According to the DEP, no suitable locations could be found in New York that were willing to take the geese as donations.

Surely, advances in science can help our DENR establish a safer, cleaner, more idyllic, and sustainable area that will attract more birds. They’ve done it before, they can do it so much better this time.

Unless of course the government is willing to relocate all our airports, which is of course a hare-brained idea.

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