Three years after a wild boar entered the Chennai airport, a jackal was found dead on the premises on Saturday.
According to officials of the Airports Authority of India, around 11 p.m. on Saturday, an airline staff member reported finding a dead jackal on the runway and alerted the authorities. Operations on the runway were suspended for five minutes and two IndiGo flights — one from Delhi and another from Indore — had to hover around, sources said.
Investigation on
“Soon after the carcass was removed, the operations resumed and flights landed. We are investigating how the animal entered the premises and how it died. It could have come in on a catering vehicle entering the airport. Otherwise, it could have dug a burrow from outside and come in,” an official said.
Runway incursions have occurred several times in the past. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s circular notes that presence of wildlife (birds and animals) in the vicinity of an airport is a major safety issue. It says: “Wildlife strikes pose a significant threat to flight safety and have caused a number of accidents. Most incidents occur at the critical phase of flight resulting in structural damage and damage to aircraft systems.”
