SubscribeWhat concrete measures should airports be taking?
When a pilot is told by Air Traffic Control that they are "clear to take off, or land" the Controller is making a statement that, to the best of their knowledge, through runway inspections, the use of Surface Movement Radar, if available, bird runs and F.O.D etc, the runway is clear of objects which could interfere with the safe take-off and landing of his aircraft.
We know that debris on a runway can cause catastrophic damage to an aircraft as sadly seen with Concorde and that similar crashes have resulted from birdstrikes.
Birds on an airfield should be considered as FOD and the same effort should be applied to their detection and removal. In most cases, reliance is placed on eyesight and vigilance of ground staff to adopt Best Practice.
Can this working practice be improved assisted by the latest technology?
Advanced Technologies Help
Airports are necessarily large, flat and open areas and detection distances of well over a kilometre are not usual. If reliance is placed on fixed point observations, such as from the Control Tower, can anyone be sure of detecting even a flock of something the size of a brick house or smaller, in all weather conditions at such a distance? All too often we have shown that we cannot, but technology exists to improve this.
Safety Management
Aviation Safety is an evolution of interactive science and technologies.
An Integrated Bird Management System is just part of that evolution: a stated Safety Management Policy that, when implemented, is designed to reduce the attractions for birds on an airport and then to disperse those birds that persist by bio-acoustic and other means.
An Integrated Bird Management System is a "best practice" policy which will achieve maximum effect in keeping airports as free as possible from the danger of a birdstrike from hazardous species.
Others in the business of contributing to the implementation of an overall airport safety policy will have specialist expertise in their own domain and will include, amongst others, Land and grass management, Lighting and signage, Foreign Object Debris detection, and Surface Friction Testing.
Integrated Management Systems have been proven to be effective in reducing the risk of damage from birdstrike and the same principals can be applied to FOD detection and prevention. In both, control of the problem involves two basic functions; detection of the object or bird(s) and their removal.
Although the latter is labour intensive, the detection can be enhanced by the constant operation of the latest generations of surface scanning radars that can equally detect a 50mm bolt or a 500g Crow on the runway; once found, both can be removed.
Computerised Event Records
Technological improvements to bird disposal systems have now made these compatible with automatic data collection systems. We are now in the position to integrate existing safety systems with virtually automatic detection, triggering computers in Control Tower and "on-board" in Operations vehicles, giving the driver the location of birds and FOD on a runway to within a few metres.
Their detection is recorded and the removal is logged automatically; when bird distress calls are broadcasted this is also noted.
In actioning a due diligence, due care, airport safety management policy for birdstrike avoidance actions, it is now an expectation that these are automatically recorded by a data management system, perhaps also noting other 'good housekeeping' reactions by staff to other potential airside hazards.
Data collection can be used for efficiency monitoring and as real evidence at accident investigations; an improvement over the practice of hand written notes. Data can also be used for comparative cross reference with daily, weekly, monthly or yearly intervals.
There are many circumstances where systems that are totally automatic and random play have increased imminent dangers, the reason why SCARECROW promote dispersal systems where the facility for human control is incorporated.
New technology alone will not deal with these problems, trained staff working for an enlightened management will always be necessary to ensure the same technology is correctly implemented.
Review Human Attitude
As with all things new, ours and other's attitudes may have to be the first things to change! As an example, tried and we thought abandoned years ago, the idea of putting loudspeakers playing 'bird' and other noises down runways at fixed positions is being discussed again.
We cannot state that this principle is not at all effective; we can state that vehicle based systems are in major use with proven efficiency the World over.
System Cost And Efficiency
Fixed systems are not regarded as an efficient, or indeed safe, method by which to broadcast bird distress calls; by their very nature they are also expensive in hardware and installation.
Depending on the location of the "bird control point", it may not be possible for the Operator to identify the bird or indeed hear that the right bird distress call is actually being broadcast. If they cannot, how do they know the birds can hear it?
If the birds do not disperse in response to a fixed position broadcast, or non-broadcast, what does the Operator then do? Despatch a vehicle to do the job and if so, will aircraft be held while this is done?
Is this more efficient than having the vehicle out on the airfield doing the job in the first place!!!
When the bird control Operator takes a mobile bio-acoustic bird dispersal system device to the problem flock of birds, he is able to hear the broadcast clearly, set the sound level according to the task in hand and turn it off if he has put birds up at the wrong moment, or completed his task.
Dispersal Efficiency Expectations
An independent Survey conducted on behalf of SCARECROW BIO-ACOUSTIC SYSTEMS revealed that distress calls replayed to birds through high quality equipment, such as that produced by SCARECROW, and operated by staff fully acquainted with the technique; achieve a good rate of dispersal using distress calls alone.
In the sole case of SCARECROW products these are always replayed from a natural beginning and are shown to demonstrate a good rate of dispersal.
When used by trained full-time bird control personnel the following results were obtained:
Species or Group | Success Rate | |
Good | Poor | |
All Gulls | 86% | 14% |
All Corvids | 75% | 25% |
Lapwing | 67% | 33% |
Starling | 75% | 25% |
Employed as part of a fully functional Integrated Bird Management System SCARECROW bio-acoustic products can be seen to reduce the number of high risk species on airports and thus improve chances of Birdstrike Avoidance.
Combining the use of distress calls with other dispersal means can therefore be expected to produce near 100% dispersal.
Importantly, bird scaring cartridges as a sole dispersal method may now be politically or socially unacceptable whereas the use of the real distress calls of birds is not only humane but fully acceptable to Security Forces and to those involved in the protection and conservation of birds and other wildlife.
Thoughts Of Days Gone By
The use of Birds of Prey, Falconry, or even dogs, may be environmentally praiseworthy attractions but for various operational and value reasons we do not consider them high on the list as part of this Centuries risk management, due care/due diligence responsibilities.
How do you data record their actions and monitor their functional efficiency with absolute certainty?
The Safety Management Initiative
Clickairport, Scarecrow Bio-acoustic Systems and N.H Bird Management are key players in the field of flight safety and are working as a Group to raise awareness of best practice bird and debris control processes offered by new and emerging technology. The Group will promote their adoption within those organisations responsible for due diligence in improving and maintaining total flight safety.
The Group believe that, although airport operators in some countries are using tools available to them wisely, other airports (often popular holiday destinations) associated airlines, tour operators, insurance companies, regulators, industry associations, lawyers and risk consultants perhaps do not realise that technology now exists which can provide considerable safety enhancements at reasonable cost. Any reluctance to implement available and emerging technology suggests that flight safety is being unnecessarily compromised.
This Group calls on all organisations in the civil aviation industry to consider their assessment procedures for ensuring their contribution to flight safety in upheld. Further, they should challenge whether their processes could be considered as falling short of the best practice approach of many airports or ICAO Directives.
Where is this leading, not to a commercial marketing of new equipments, if they are necessary and efficient they sell anyway! Instead, this is part of a scheme to increase the awareness of the end users to what is currently available, to improve their choice and help airport operators to develop their safety management plans to encompass best practice.
We are all in the business of Risk Management where a lack of awareness has been proven to lead to hazardous and even fatal circumstances.
Important, Approachable, Contacts For You....
Tony Walker
Chief Executive
Karen Walker
Director
Linda Coughlan
Sales Office Manager
Tele: +44 (0) 1825 766 363
Fax: +44 (0) 1825 766 361
E-mail: sales@scarecrowbio-acoustic.co.uk
Website: www.scarecrowbio-acoustic.co.uk
In the mean time please look at our fully comprehensive website:
Any of us will be able to handle your enquiries and make sure you get a prompt answer.
"Thank-you for your interest in bird safety"
