By Daniel Eteghe

LAGOS—Managing Director of Dana Air, Mr. Jacky Hathiramani, said yesterday that the airline had lost N270 million as a result of bird strike on one of its engines in Abuja, recently.

Hathiramani, who disclosed this to newsmen in his office, noted that the affected aircraft was grounded for three weeks as a result of the strike.

He said: “Incidents like this, which can be prevented, are causing airline operators great losses and are potential risks to flight.

“We hope that the authorities in charge would take up the challenge as soon as possible and reduce such occurrence, if not eliminated, else the incidents of bird strikes in our airports will continue.”

Also recently, aviation expert, Group Captain John Obakpolor urged the Federal  Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN to take urgent steps to minimise the effects of bird strike to aircraft, saying that domestic airlines were losing hundreds of  millions of naira to the menace. He said that if something drastic was not done, the attack of birds could lead to air mishap.