POTENTIALLY disastrous collisions between birds and aircraft around Scotland's busiest airports are on the increase.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said bird strikes have risen at Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness airports over the past two years, with an increase in wild flocks and air traffic blamed.
Confirmed reports of bird strikes are on the increase throughout the UK, with 1529 reported last year – up from 1278 in 2009.
Airport operators insist the risks are remote, but they are not complacent about the dangers of the incidents.
Bird strikes have been blamed for bringing down huge aircraft in the past, including the incident in 2009 where an Airbus A320 was forced to ditch in the Hudson river in New York.
Glasgow Airport reported eight strikes this year involving large birds, up from the usual annual average of three.
Officials say more swans and geese may be migrating to Scotland, and some birds may be roosting in nearby industrial buildings.
The CAA figures show bird strikes at Inverness Airport increased from 24 in 2010 and 31 last year to 35 so far this year.
In Aberdeen reports fell from 37 to 27 in 2010 and 2011 respectively. But the number has reached 38 for 2012.
Prestwick Airport had a reduction in reported incidents, from 15 last year to eight so far this year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article