Manmohan Singh

Guess who’s the latest victim of the bird menace at the city airport? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The departure of the Prime Minister’s Delhi-bound flight was delayed by two minutes on Sunday morning after the pilot spotted birds on the runway.

Airport sources said the delay would have been longer had it been any other flight. Inspection jeeps, waiting on the edge of the runway as part of the Prime Minister’s security, geared into action immediately after the air force pilot raised an alarm and the runway was safe for take-off within seconds.

Earlier in the morning, Singh’s Malda tour was cancelled because of dense fog in Purnea, Bihar. The Prime Minister’s aircraft was to land in Purnea, from where he was scheduled to fly to Malda in a helicopter. Singh had planned to visit the house of A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, the late Congress MP from Malda.

Following the cancellation of the Malda tour, the Prime Minister’s departure for Delhi was scheduled for 9.25am.

Moments after the air force plane entered the primary runway through taxiway A, an alarmed pilot called the air traffic control, saying: “There is a bird concentration on the main runway.”

The flight was stopped and inspection jeeps waiting on the edge of the runway rushed in. Within seconds, the runway was cleared and the aircraft took off at 9.27am.

“Since it was the Prime Minister’s flight, runway inspection jeeps were on stand-by and an all-clear signal could be flashed immediately. In case of any other flight, the delay would have been longer,” said an official.

The bird menace — there have been quite a few birdhits at the airport — has been affecting the flight schedule for years.

In May, a Calcutta-Mumbai Air India flight with 143 passengers on board was hit by a bird moments after it took off in the evening.

Earlier this year, an Air India flight from Agartala was hit by a bird while it was landing in the afternoon.

Fortunately, neither aircraft suffered any damage.

Sources said the bird concentration has increased since work on airport modernisation started in September.

“Huge tracts of land have been dug up for the extension of the secondary runway and construction of parking bays. Insects crawling out of the dug-up parts are attracting birds,” an official said.

“The markets outside the airport, too, are to be blamed.”