Trouble on the Runways

Animals and people are wandering onto runways across Asia—especially in India and Indonesia where planes are taking off in places that, until recently, were rural. Although rarely deadly in recent years, the incursions are a big concern because they force pilots to make high-risk decisions after striking cows, antelopes or even men on motorbikes.

In 2014, SpiceJet Flight SG-622 struck a buffalo on a runway in western India. The animal lodged in the engine cowling, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff at the last moment.

A year earlier, a Lion Air jet struck two cows on a runway on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The “smell of burning meat entered the cabin” and two passengers were injured after the plane slid off the runway, according to an Indonesian investigation.

And in 2012, Batavia Air Flight Y6-206 was nearing 300 kilometers an hour when the flight crew heard a bang during takeoff from Pontianak, Indonesia. The jet made it to Jakarta, but when it landed, it suffered large vibrations, veering left to right before stopping. Air traffic control in Pontianak found a deer’s head beside the tarmac.

Authorities have tried to police runways better. In Pontianak, they paid landholders to improve animal holding pens and strengthened airport fences.

But villagers sometimes break through fences to access better grazing land or take shortcuts near runways, officials say.

In 2010, a training flight hit two locals riding beside the runway on a motorbike in Budiarto, Indonesia, killing the two and the flight instructor. A later investigation found villagers had cut holes in the fence to cross the runway to a main road.