How Menace of Bird Strikes Impede Safe Flight Operations in Nigeria
Chinedu Eze
Airline operators have over the years, lamented the menace of bird strikes, which constitute threat to flight safety, disrupt flight operations and force operators to incur huge losses in aircraft repairs.
Every week, one of the operating airlines in domestic service, records bird strike and sometimes, two aircraft belonging to one airline may suffer bird strike within one week.
Last year, two aircraft belonging to Air Peace suffered bird strike within four hours and that led to the grounding of the two aircraft, which was a major disruption to the airline’s flight operations.
Last week United Nigeria Airlines disclosed that two of its aircraft recorded bird strike in less than 24 hours, making it the fourth aircraft that suffered bird strike since January 2026.
United Nigeria Airlines, in a statement, said: “In line with our strict and uncompromising safety standards, the affected aircraft has been withdrawn from service for comprehensive technical inspections before returning to operations. This brings the total number of Airbus aircraft withdrawn from service in less than 24-hours to TWO (2). As a result, some flights across our network will be disrupted and may not operate as earlier scheduled. This is indeed another bird Strike too many.”
In a telephone interview with THISDAY, the Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer, United Nigeria Airlines, Chief Osita Okonkwo, recalled the meeting the airline management had with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on how the bird strike could be significantly curbed.
After listening to the FAAN management on the new plans to drastically reduce the incidents of bird strike, Okonkwo expressed optimism that FAAN was committed to eliminating bird strikes incidents through new measures it is adopting.
FAAN said that it has identified the kind of birds that are ubiquitous at the Lagos airports (where more than 70 per cent of the bird strike incidents happen); they are black kites, which tend to appear in the late hours of the day into the night.
The agency explained that the major reason why birds stayed around the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos is because of its closeness to the residential areas.
FAAN said it would adopt the use of Phoenix airport wailers, which creates different noises and cries, to keep the birds away. It said it has commissioned studies, gathered data about the species of birds that come to the airport, adding that it will reinforce its bird-scare strategies to ensure that bird strike is significantly curtailed.
Okonkwo said United Nigeria Airlines recorded a lot of bird strikes last year, disclosing that bird strike had led to the grounding of one of its aircraft for eight days with a loss of 50 flights.
On the latest incidents where two aircraft were grounded in 24 hours due to bird strike, Okonkwo said the airline engaged an expert from Europe who carried out borescope on the first aircraft that suffered the incident. Borescope is optical inspection tool equipped with camera to examine the internal component of aircraft engine.
Okonkwo also said the second aircraft that was grounded due to bird strike would soon go back to service, as the airline has procured the spares that would be used to repair the aircraft.
According to him, bird strike causes a lot of flight disruptions and that although he cannot count the losses in terms of finance, but the airline loses a lot of money to bird strike.
“Bird strike causes a lot of disruptions. It constitutes safety threat but we are lucky that it has not caused serious incident or accident, but bird strike is real and we suffer a lot of financial losses. We absorb the losses. However, FAAN is determined to put a check to the incidents of bird strike and reduce the incidents to the barest minimum because this is about safety,” Okonkwo.
In December 2025, Air Peace disclosed that it recorded 49 bird strikes across Nigeria between January and September that year, stressing that even a single strike could ground an aircraft for weeks.
Also, early last year, the airline disclosed that it recorded high number of bird strike incidents in 2024, numbering about 43 bird strikes; so, the airline is a major victim of bird strike because it has more aircraft in the air, being the operator with the largest number of aircraft fleet in Nigeria.
Few years ago, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), the umbrella body of indigenous carriers in the country, took the matter of bird strike up with concerned authorities and disclosed that it recorded a loss of $60 million to bird strike incidents in Nigeria, within 21 months.
FAAN during a workshop last year, disclosed that Nigerian and foreign airlines recorded at least 127 bird strike incidents in 21 months across the nation’s 26 airports between 2021 to 2022.
Also report from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on wild life hazards at the airports, indicated that the industry experienced 36 bird strike incidents in 2021 involving domestic airlines, but this grew massively to 93 as at September 17, 2022, across the country’s airports.
Out of the 93 incidents arising from bird strikes, 58 of such happened at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, within the period.
“Our record shows that we have had at least 93 bird strike incidents in all our airports between January and June this year (2022). And out of this number, 54 of it happened in Lagos Airport alone, which represents about 70 per cent of the total occurrences. We all have to proffer a solution to this menace and I do hope we have a lasting solution to it because everyone, especially the airlines are losing money,” a NAMA official stated in 2022 during a workshop on wild life and bird strike at the airports.
It was learnt that securing spares to replace the damaged part of the aircraft could sometimes be very difficult, which forces the aircraft on ground (AOG) to be grounded for more days.
Bird strike can also be life threatening, even though there had not been any major incident where birds were sucked into the two engines of an aircraft in Nigeria, like what happened in other parts of the world.
Globally, bird strikes (or wildlife strikes) have caused over $1.2 billion in damage to aircraft annually, with more than 464 people killed and over 305 aircraft destroyed due to wildlife collisions between 1988 and 2022. The most severe incidents often involve multi-engine ingestion of large birds (like geese or starlings) during critical take-off or landing phases.
On December 19, 2024 in South Korea, a tragic accident involving a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800, which experienced a dual engine failure after hitting a flock of Baikal teals, resulted in a crash landing, a massive fire, and 179 fatalities out of 181 on board.
