February 17, 2025
SINGAPORE – In November 2024, a Scoot pilot who had 13 years of flying under his belt encountered a bird strike for the first time in his career.
The aircraft was descending towards Phuket International Airport in Thailand when the Singapore-based captain said he heard a loud thud and felt something impact the nose of the plane.
The pilot, who is in his 40s, scanned the controls to check for possible damage to the plane. He decided it was safer to land before ascertaining what went wrong.
“To be honest, it was not very scary,” said the pilot, who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Upon inspecting the aircraft on the ground, engineers found dents on the plane’s nose and wing. The aircraft was then grounded for almost a week for repairs to be completed, noted the pilot.
Bird strikes have entered the spotlight since a deadly Jeju Air crash in South Korea in December 2024.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft burst into flames after hitting a wall during an emergency landing at Muan International Airport, killing 179 people on board. One of its pilots had reported a bird strike before the crash.
Early findings show that the jet’s engines contained duck DNA and bird feathers. Investigations are ongoing.
A bird strike is a collision between a bird and an aircraft in flight, typically during take-off and landing at lower altitudes.
According to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), about 61 per cent of bird strikes with civil aircraft in the country take place during landing, while 36 per cent occur during take-off.
Additionally, the FAA states that about 54 per cent of bird strikes in the US occur from July to October, which is when young birds leave their nests and when autumn migration takes place.
In Singapore, there have been no serious incidents due to bird strikes at Changi Airport, Mr Alan Foo, the deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), told The Straits Times on Feb 11.
He said CAAS tracks wildlife-related safety trends with airport operator Changi Airport Group (CAG), and works closely with CAG to ensure that its measures are appropriate and effective in mitigating wildlife hazards.
Previously, members of the Singapore Gun Club had been roped in to shoot down birds – particularly the larger ones – that posed a threat to air safety. This drew the ire of animal activists and zoologists.
This type of avian culling has stopped since 2015, the club told ST.
Since November 2023, CAG has been trialling the use of video analytics technology to identify and monitor wildlife movement on the runways.
It has also been using several tools to keep birds out of the airfield, including a long-range acoustic device – resembling a large speaker – which projects sound waves for up to 3km away to frighten birds.
Pilots of Singapore-registered carriers are required to report all bird strike encounters in Singapore and overseas to CAAS, and all pilots flying at or around Changi and Seletar airports have to report bird strikes to CAAS air traffic controllers, said Mr Foo.
He noted that the authority’s air traffic control officers are trained to handle bird strike situations in a manner similar to other emergencies and abnormal operations, with safety as the main priority.
Recalling one of his flights coming into Changi from a decade ago, Mr Logason Sinnatamby, a former Singapore Airlines pilot of 25 years, said air traffic controllers had informed him of a bird sighting on the runway and asked if he would prefer to go around to avoid the bird.
Mr Logason proceeded with the landing anyway, as the aircraft had minimal fuel left.
He later discovered that the bird on the runway was already dead before the landing, so “it did not matter”.
But things could get more complicated if planes hit birds during take-off.
An SIA pilot with more than 25 years of experience, who also asked to be unnamed because he cannot speak to reporters, experienced a dramatic bird strike incident when the aircraft “barrelled” into a flock of migratory birds as it was taking off from Yangon, Myanmar, more than 10 years ago.
Recounting that there were “specks of blood” on the windscreen as the plane hurtled down the runway, the pilot said the engines were running normally, so he continued with the take-off.
He then checked on possible airports en route to Singapore for emergency landings, in case things suddenly went south during the flight. Fortunately, the flight landed safely at Changi Airport.
“The engineers got a shock when we landed because it was a very dramatic-looking aircraft,” said the pilot, adding that there were blood streaks and feathers all over the body of the plane.
On dealing with bird strikes, he noted that pilots are trained to approach problems symptomatically, such as fixing an engine issue directly, instead of focusing on why and how the damage was caused.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation, a United Nations agency that sets global standards and practices for air transport operations, said there were more than 270,000 reports of wildlife strikes to aircraft from 2016 to 2021.
There was some form of damage to parts of the aeroplanes in just 3 per cent of these incidents.
Bird strikes can sometimes take passengers by surprise.
In August 2018, Mr Greg Hill, an Australian national, was travelling on a Philippine Airlines flight from Davao to Manila when he heard a loud bang as the plane was moving down the runway during take-off.
A strong smell of rubber then filled the cabin, he added, before fire engines were dispatched to the location of the plane.
The plane later taxied back to the terminal and the pilot announced that there had been a possible bird strike. From Mr Hill’s video recording of the view outside the window during take-off, it appeared that a large bird got sucked into the engine.
The flight was later cancelled after passengers were made to disembark from the aircraft.
From laser beams to herbicide
Airports around the world employ a wide range of measures, including laser beams and herbicide, to mitigate the impact of bird strikes.
At Changi Airport, CAG said its wildlife management programme aims to reduce the risks posed to aircraft by wildlife, including migratory birds.
From 6.30am every day, CAG’s airside management safety inspection team patrols the airfield at regular intervals throughout the day, looking out for birds near the runways, according to an article published on the airport operator’s website in July 2020.
The team uses a wide variety of equipment, such as a handheld aero-laser that can fire laser beams up to 2.5km away to spook birds on the ground.
At Darwin International Airport in Australia, herbicide and insecticide are sprayed on 100ha of grass around the airport’s main runway to reduce the amount of weeds and insects, and thus the wildlife that feeds on them.
At Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, the runway area is kept dry using a special drainage system that prevents puddles from forming after it rains, as puddles attract birds.
Its bird controllers also regularly perform bird counts to identify the most common species and measure the effectiveness of certain bird-chasing strategies.
To keep birds away, they use equipment such as flare guns with noise blanks, bird alarm call systems and green lasers.
On managing the risk of bird strikes, Singapore-based budget carrier Jetstar Asia said it follows industry practices and operating procedures, including rigorous pilot training and thorough engineering inspections, to reduce potential wildlife strikes.
Similarly, the SIA Group, which operates SIA and budget arm Scoot, said its pilots are well trained and equipped with the skills and knowledge to handle unforeseen circumstances such as bird strikes.
Mr Michael Daniel, managing director of consultancy Aviation Insight and a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, told ST that greater interdependency between airlines or pilots, airport operators, and air traffic controllers is needed to better mitigate the threat of bird strikes.
This is because airport operators can offer localised wildlife mitigation approaches, while air traffic controllers can track migratory bird activity and advise pilots to fly around these paths – similar to avoiding a thunderstorm, he said.
At the same time, pilots can request a different landing approach, or fly in a holding pattern, based on advice from air traffic controllers.
Mr Daniel recommends that these parties share data with one another on an international platform, so that they can better understand what to expect in terms of migratory bird patterns and airport practices.
To those who may find themselves on a plane struck by a bird, Mr Daniel advises: “Be alert, and pay attention to the pilots’ and flight attendants’ announcements and actions.”
- Esther Loi is a journalist at The Straits Times, where she covers transport issues.