Bird strike issues India

[dkatwa]

Hi all...just flown from Mumbai to Bangalore and noticed many birds within a few feet of the plane during take off, maybe up to 4000 ft. There seem to be many big birds around in India and was wondering what the strike rate was in places like India?
Thanks

[Allan Lupton]

Used to be pretty high when I was going there in the 1970s/80s.
One of my airline oppos reckoned a lot of airports had a municipal rubbish dump under the approach and you could certainly look out of his office window and see a stack of countless kite-hawks waiting for the next 737.

Mind you, mentioning 4000 ft, as you did, I have to remind you that in some parts of Africa the Ostrich can and does operate at 5000 ft.!

[dkatwa]

Thanks Allan..do pilots take special precautions during takeoff? I am thinking of the Hudson incident and believe even one bird would cause enough damage to an engine..cheers