KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- Filled with exhilaration as you put on all of your gear and proceed to your jet. Cranking up the engine you begin rolling, picking up speed as you make your way down the flight line. Suddenly, you hear a thump and start to lose engine power, causing you to perform an emergency engine-out landing. Later on, when inspections were completed on the engine malfunction it is discovered that a bird had been sucked into the intake.
Fortunately, this scene is fictional. The 8th Fighter Wing safety office has a program designed to make sure this doesn’t happen to an aircraft on base.
“We continually push to improve the aviation safety programs in an effort to provide the safest flying conditions possible,”said Master Sgt. Nathan Thomas, 8th Fighter Wing flight safety NCO in-charge. “One of the programs that are implemented is the Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard prevention program, or BASH.”
The BASH prevention program is an established base program designed to minimize aircraft exposure to potentially hazardous bird and wildlife strikes.
Wildlife can cause significant damage, but Kunsan works hard to avoid these circumstances for the safety of the pilot, people on the ground and local wildlife. From the highest to lowest elevations on base, Airmen make sure that jets are always ready to take off at any time.
“Bird strikes can potentially be catastrophic depending on size of bird and impact area,” Thomas said. “With the F-16 being a single-engine aircraft it is vital that we reduce the amount of avian hazards around the airfield.”
At Kunsan, flight safety works side by side with airfield management, air traffic control, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron, and the ROKAF safety office to reduce the risk of bird and wildlife strikes through the Operational Risk Management process.
There are a number of things that safety does in order to keep the runways clear from wildlife.
“Currently, we implement a routine drive through the perimeter of the airfield making sure avian
hazards are dispersed," Thomas said. “We also utilize a BASH team who goes out prior to flights and on weekends to scare the animals off or eliminate the purpose of them being in the vicinity.”
The flight line safety office also has a contract during certain months to maintain low grass and spray for insects to keep the food source for birds and other wildlife down to a minimum.
“We also use pyrotechnics to scare off the birds,” said Capt. Sean Corrigan, 8th FW flight safety officer.
As a last resort, if all of these options aren’t successful, the safety office coordinates a program to use shotguns to eliminate remaining wildlife. Though this is rare, it effectively prevents aircraft mishaps.
“Development and implementation of an effective BASH program requires constant interaction between bases natural resources, aviation safety, and air-operations communities as well as the pilots and aircrews,” Thomas said. “Habitat modifications and scaring birds away from the runways is an integral part of the answer, but understanding the behavior and movements of birds in relation to the airfield environment and military training routes by pilots and aircrews is also a critical factor in reducing bird strikes.”