Dogs’ day out at Bangalore airport. It’s not a flight of fancy

There’s a new problem dogging the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) that threatens air passengers’ safety. Stray dogs on the airport’s runway are putting the flights and the passengers at a grave risk, threatening an encore of the mishap on HAL airport runway on March 28, 2008 night when a Kingfisher ATR aircraft taking off for Hyderabad hit a stray dog, causing the aircraft’s nose wheel to collapse and get jammed.

The passengers had a miraculous escape though two of them were treated for shock, but the safety of passengers cannot be guaranteed if such an incident occurs again at BIA.
Fed up with the dogged problem, BIAL recently wrote to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seeking help to eliminate the problem.

Sources said the problem was discussed on August 9 at a BIA sub-committee meeting, after which the head of BIA’s aviation safety wing, Grp Capt (Retd) N Krishnamurthy, sent a letter (dated September 17, 2010) seeking BBMP’s animal husbandry division’s help.

BBMP joint director (animal husbandry), PA Peeran, confirmed this, but said nothing can be done as the BIA area does not fall under BBMP’s jurisdiction.
BIA left to devise own strategies, p20