Bird-hits: Deadline to phase out shotguns,crackers extended

The Civil Aviation Ministry and security agencies have decided to push the deadline to phase out shotguns and firecrackers deployed to scare birds at airports across the country to November 1. Failing to meet the July deadline earlier,some of the airports,including the private ones like the Delhi airport,had asked for an extension,and were allowed to continue using firecrackers.

In a review conducted recently by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS),it has been decided to ban firecrackers too and instead deploy alternate technologies at airport to shoo away birds. For this purpose,it has issued November as the new deadline as some of the airports had complained that they were not informed in time.

The issue of phasing out of firecrackers had assumed heightened importance after it was found that some of the firecrackers used at the Bangalore airport to scare birds,had escaped security check and found their way on board the Kingfisher Airlines’s Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram flight. Following the incident,BCAS was asked to frame a Standard Operating Procedure for usage of firecrackers and their accounting. But it has not been prepared till date,claimed sources.