MICHAEL WAKABI / KAMPALA
Airports' fears that accident history will keep airlines away hamper record keeping
A large number of African countries, including Kenya and Uganda, are concealing information on bird strike incidents at their airports, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Only 11 of the 40 African countries where bird strikes occurred between 1996 and 2000 filed reports with the ICAO Bird Strike Information System (IBIS), it has been revealed at a seminar in Kampala, Uganda.
According to the third Eastern and Southern Africa Workshop on the Reduction of Bird Hazards to Aviation, Kenya suffered 34 bird strikes during the period and Uganda 77, but, although they recorded the information, they did not report it to IBIS.
This is making it difficult to assess the bird hazard at many African airports, says Nairobi, Kenya-based ICAO regional aerodromes and ground aids officer Lambert Ndiwaita.
Instead, information is more readily available from secondary sources, such as aviation insurers and airlines operating from these airports. This is hampering efforts to design effective mitigation measures, Ndiwaita adds.
"I think the major problem is lack of awareness about bird hazards, and the reporting system used is simply not functional in many countries. There is also a lack of sensitisation among the airport authorities and staff.
"Bird strike reports are sometimes compiled but never submitted to the higher authorities for a variety of reasons, including airports trying to conceal information for fear that some airlines will refuse to land at airports reporting many bird hazard accidents," Ndiwaita says.
He adds that the additional security burden imposed by the events of 11 September is also straining airport financial resources, which affects investment in controlling bird strikes.
South Africa reported 552 bird strikes during the four-year period. It leads the list of complying African states, followed by Morocco with 42 reports; Senegal with 28; Cameroon with 19; Mauritius with 13; Egypt with 12; Ivory Coast with 11; Tanzania with 10; Burkina Faso with nine; Togo with seven; and Niger with five.
Airports are encouraged to file reports because "ICAO considers the study of such reports as basic to understanding and resolving the problem of bird hazard to aircraft", the workshop was told.
Source: Flight International
