Ho Chi Minh City's 'Tan Son Nhat International Airport' is worried about birds , frequent hits in last ten days !

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) based Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN/VVTS) needs a better wildlife and birds management strategy to save the aircraft from the costly groundings.

The bird hit incidents have increased to worrying levels, with as good as seven hits in the last ten days, that untimately grounded the aircraft in many cases, forcing maintenance and repair.

The Civil aviation authority of Vietnam has taken the acknowledgement of the spike in the incidents , that generally happen during the take off or landing phase of a flight.

Among the recent incidents was one such case , that happened on May 3rd , where blood was noticed on the fuselage of the aircraft, that did a flight from Phu Quoc International Airport (PQC) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), forcing additional maintenance work and grounding.

Bird hit cases are complicated , those requiring Non-destructive testing (NDT) on fuselage skin or Engine Borescope Inspection , depending on area of impact.

An example of severe Bird strike  - An A350 aircraft Radome area.

On April 25th , another flight from Da Lat Lien Khuong Airport, (DLI) in the Central Highlands to Ho Chi Minh City was found with a dead bird inside an engine of the Airbus A321 aircraft.

• These are the cases , where an extensive inspection inside the different stages of engine becomes mandatory before releasing the aircraft to further service.
• And sometimes , based on the inspection results and allowable damage limits , replacement of the affected engine becomes necessary to declare the aircraft as 'fit to fly'.

On 26th April , blood stain was found on one of the Boeing 787 that had just landed at HCMC, via a flight from Hanoi, sources at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam says.

Signs of bird strike and Blood spots were found on multiple aircraft sections of the A321 on  April 29th after it flew from Tuy Hoa in the central region to HCMC.

The same aircraft was sent to maintenance, when on May 1st, the same  A321 made another flight from Phu Quoc to HCMC, and technicians detected more blood stains on its airframe.

The civil aviation authority of Vietnam said that bird hit incidents have increased more often in recent months. Authority has also requested relevant wildlife management units to chase birds and other wild animals away from airports , especially Hanoi’s Noi Bai and HCMC’s Tan Son Nhat.

'Da Lat' and 'Phu Quoc' are other Airports that have frequently encountered such incidents apart from HCMC’s Tan Son Nhat Airport. Primary reason behind these incidents are said to be the, large fields and the locations where birds' movement are unpredictable.