The topic of bird strikes in the aviation and aeronautics sectors returns to the top of the priorities of public debate in Italy. It happened after the air accident of an Aermacchi MB-339 "Pony 4" aircraft (registration MM54539/4) of the "Frecce Tricolori" National Aerobatic Team (Pan) of the Italian Air Force (AMI), which crashed on 16 September 2023, near the "Sandro Pertini" airport of Turin-Caselle, due to an engine failure caused by the impact with one or more birds.

According to data from the latest annual report on "Wildlife Strikes" by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (Enac), there were 2,168 impacts of aircraft with wild animals, mostly birds, but also mammals, in 2022, largely in airport areas, below 300 feet altitude. In 1917 cases there were no consequences. There were 40 incidents in which damage was recorded, while 121 were multiple collisions with birds, and 103 were those in which an animal ended up in the engines.

In detail, at Turin airport in 2017 there were 42,641 plane movements and 17 impacts were recorded. A number decreasing compared to the 13 in 2020 and the 10 collisions in 2021. Enac also notes that the Turin airport management company (Sagat) has adopted specific practices and dissuasion systems to remove birds from the airport grounds: cars with sirens dual-tone, 22 trained falcons, as well as two border collie dogs used to ward off wildlife.

On the same topic see the article published by AVIONEWS.