Karachi: Overall 29 Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) planes suffered bird strikes in past five months at different airports across country while seven aircraft were affected by bird hits.

Sources told that 29 bird strike incidents were reported from January to May 2023 including 10 bird-hit incidents this month. Bird-hit incidents took place at country’s airports in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Peshawar, Gilgit and Multan. Mostly bird strike incidents were reported at Karachi and Lahore airports. Seven PIA planes suffered partial and heavy damages while 22 aircraft remained undamaged after being struck by birds. Airline suffers heavy financial losses due to bird strike incidents as affected aircraft are temporarily grounded.

In 2022, as many as 48 planes of foreign and national airlines had been affected by bird strikes from January 2022 to May 2022 and several of them were damaged causing huge financial losses to airlines.

According to report released by Civil Aviation Authority, national and foreign airlines faced massive financial losses due to bird strikes on aircraft inside Pakistan’s airspace in last five years followed by lack of cleanliness and delay in installation of bird control system at airports.

As per stats, overall 662 bird strike incidents were reported in Pakistan in between January 2018 May 2022. Most incidents were reported from Lahore Allama Iqbal International Airport (198) followed by Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport where 192 planes were affected by bird strikes. Over 100 cases were reported in Islamabad, 53 in Sialkot, 40 in Peshawar, 26 in Multan and 17 in Quetta.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 25 2023

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