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In one of the world’s oldest fables the turtle gets to the finish line before the hare. However in New York it is the commercial airliners that are beaten by one of the world’s slowest moving creatures, the turtle.
Seventy-eight diamond-back terrapin turtles, weighing around 2-3 pounds each, managed to halt the world’s biggest aircraft, when they caused the runway to be blocked to all air traffic, for approximately 35 minutes. A representative for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the operations at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, revealed “The turtles just appear out of the water. It doesn’t occur all the time, although it does happen.”
The small amphibians created an hour and a half delay at the airport, which processes around 48 million travelers annually. It is uncertain that the global passengers would have accepted they were being delayed by little tiny turtles.
People and planes waited while the turtles were seized and let go back into the wild, away from the airport.
The International Airport at Victoria Falls has also been recognized as having to hold up jets, while jeeps run off a pride of lions from the runway.
In Vanuatu, on the tiny tropical island of Tanna, airplanes have been known to buzz the airport to get rid of wild horses, before landing.
Both private and commercial airplanes report there are thousands of incidents annually, where birds collide with airplanes. Fortunately the vast majority of strikes create no potential danger.
Jon Russell, a commercial pilot and Western region safety coordinator for the Air Line Pilots Association said “Bird strikes cost the airline company millions of dollars annually”. The collisions often occur at low level altitudes, during takeoff, climbing and landing.
The worst military mishap, involved a United States Air Force Boeing E-3B surveillance plane which encountered a flock of Canadian geese shortly after takeoff from Elmendorf Air Face Base near Anchorage. Twenty-four Air Force personnel were killed.
Many airports have dozens of staff guarding runways and taxiways right around the clock, in order to keep the runways clear of wreckage and wildlife. In other nations it might be mercenaries who are the threat to air traffic.
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Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband are CEO's of YouMe Support Foundation (http://youmesupport.org) providing high school education grants for children who are without hope. A chance to fulfill their dreams at whatever level they chose to.
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