Battle of the Birds
How Queenstown Airport is winning an ever-changing battle to protect aircraft from bird strikes
It’s such a classic conflict - modern jet aircraft vs. the humble bird. Both can damage each other and its a hard situation to manage.
The team at Queenstown airport was able to take Crux on a tour of their battlefield this week and the good news is that they have everything as much under control as is possible. And it’s a tricky job.
The birds are always quick to learn and defeat all of the defensive tactics deployed by the airport - but the airport can stay one or two steps ahead by having hundreds of different plans up their sleeves. In the end they have guns to kill birds - but most of the time that’s not necessary.
For instance in the main image above is a device that has data recordings stored of over 30 different bird species’ distress calls. Juliet Breen (in the photo) , Head of Operations, Compliance & Safety explains how everything works in our video interview below.
Helping her is Royden Cullimore one of the airport’s three Emergency Service Crew Chiefs who has a vast range of bird removal systems at his disposal including a bright orange pistol that rather impressively fires a selection of bright and noisy fireworks at any uninvited birds (that all of them - especially plovers.)
Royden Cullimore with his firework-firing anti bird pistol.
There’s also bright shiny devices that spin in the wind and gas powered cannons that have the power to make humans jump out of their skin - let alone our little feathered friends.
A gas powered cannon - very loud!
Royden with one of the airport’s more passive bird frighteners.
Please do take time to watch our interview with Juliet Breen. It’s one of those jobs that we just don’t think about - but she and her Queenstown team are literally life savers and perhaps the most unsung heroes in the field of aviation safety.
You can also watch this interview with airport CEO Glen Sowry after last year’s Queenstown bird strike involving a Virgin aircraft that went on to land safely in Invercargill.