Fish, fowl foil IAF’s flight plans

Air Force Station in Yelahanka, which hosts Asia’s largest air show and which is the nerve centre of the IAF’s training activity, has been severely hit by the bird strike menace.

This menace, which could spell doom for aircraft movement, is due to illegal rearing of catfish at Razak Palya,  3km from the air base. The meat waste, which is used to feed catfish, attracts scavenger birds, which come on the flight path, resulting in bird hits.

“Almost, every day, we are forced to shut down our flight operations for a few hours due to this menace,” said Air Commodore BS Yadav, AOC, Air Force Station, Yelahanka. He added that being a training base where rookie pilots are imparted training on Antonov-32 (AN-32) and Dornier aircraft, bird-hit incidents could cause damage to both aircraft and the pilots’ lives.