Birds Korea NGO calls for reassessment of Korea’s new airport proposals, expansions

Geese swim within the water close to Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, Oct. 28. Courtesy of Birds Korea

Fowl strikes are a critical risk to plane at a lot of Korea’s airports, and the issue is prone to worsen within the coming years with the introduction of extra regional airports across the nation, in keeping with a nongovernmental group (NGO) associated to the research of birds.

Nial Moores, nationwide director of Birds Korea, despatched out the warning on Jan. 6, following the disastrous Jeju Air crash at Muan Worldwide Airport in South Jeolla Province, Dec. 29.

„There … must be an sincere reassessment of the suitability of the situation of current and of proposed airports — particularly because it pertains to the fowl strike threat at every airport,“ Moores mentioned in a blog post on birdskoreablog.org. „That is an pressing crucial due to the excessive variety of new airports which can be being proposed, nearly all in bird-important areas close to the coast.“

A fowl strike, probably with a flock of birds, is at the moment believed to be one of many causes of the current crash.

Moores talked about that the runway there may be at the moment being prolonged regardless of the airport’s presence subsequent to wetlands, which assist round 40,000 waterbirds every winter.

„All alongside the west coast of the ROK and on islands like Baengnyeong, flocks of geese roost on or near water. Close to dawn, they then fly out to feed in rice fields, typically flying 20 kilometers or extra a technique,“ Moores mentioned.

„Primarily based on this conduct, it appears extremely possible that geese in Muan would attempt to use the reservoir instantly to the southeast of the runway for roosting. If there was disturbance on the reservoir they’d seemingly congregate as a substitute at low tide on the adjoining tidal flat. From there, the geese would then commute backwards and forwards to rice fields to feed. Which means a number of hundred geese would seemingly commute backwards and forwards throughout the runway on a number of dates between October and March. As this species has substantial mass, collision with a flock could possibly be predicted to be very dangerous to plane throughout takeoff or touchdown.“

He pointed to the proposals for seven new airports to be in-built coastal areas: Saemangeum in North Jeolla Province, Gadeok Island in Busan, Seosan in South Chungcheong Province, jap Jeju Island, Baengnyeong Island in Incheon’s territory, Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province and Heuksan Island in South Jeolla Province. Many of those are situated alongside vital migratory routes and in vital wetlands in addition to different areas vital to birds.

This map reveals the places of seven proposed airports, with a 13-kilometer radius marked by a crimson circle round every. Muan Worldwide Airport has been in operation since 2007. The Ulleung Island airport is below building. A number of others have budgets allotted to them or obtained some sort of preliminary approval. Courtesy of Birds Korea

He additionally cited issues over one other airport at the moment below building on Ulleung Island, an island with a inhabitants of round 10,000, which Moores mentioned is projected to price $560.9 million.

„Information out there to authorities clearly signifies that at the least seven and maybe all eight of those new airports, as soon as operational, will inevitably expertise a excessive or an exceptionally excessive threat of fowl strike to plane,“ he concluded.

The British nationwide known as for reassessing all of those airport proposals and operations, stating that each one such reassessments of airport locality and operation in Korea must be framed clearly by the steering supplied by the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO), a U.N. company charged with making certain aviation security all over the world. He additionally added that there are financial and different environmental causes past defending birds for reconsidering the necessity for these additional airports.

A small flock of Taiga bean geese (with a single globally endangered swan goose) swim in a lake close to a reclamation web site, with a number of globally endangered Oriental storks feeding alongside the sting of the lake behind them, November 2024, in entrance of the latest proposed web site for the airport on Baengnyeong Island. Courtesy of Birds Korea

Moores defined that not all species of birds pose the identical degree of threat to airplanes, citing the ICAO, which identifies components within the severity of a fowl strike based mostly on „the dimensions of the animal and its tendency to flock or congregate.“

„A airplane colliding with a single small fowl is unlikely to pose a lot threat to the plane,“ Moores added. „Plane colliding with giant flocks of birds, which have a excessive mass (physique weight) pose a a lot larger threat. Bigger-bodied birds which regularly type giant flocks, like geese and cormorants, pose the best fowl strike threat in the event that they continuously fly throughout the runway or closely used flight paths.“

He highlighted three foremost steps that decision-makers can take to cut back the chance of fowl strikes.

„The primary, and wisest step, is precautionary,“ he mentioned. „Which means avoiding constructing airports in areas identified or discovered to have giant concentrations of large-bodied birds — basically migratory bottlenecks and wetlands … If security of plane is the precedence, then most of the at the moment proposed airports ought to have been canceled in the course of the preliminary venture scoping interval. There may be nonetheless time to take this step.“

The second step comes if an airport is deemed actually important and the chance of fowl strike is taken into account acceptable. „That is the stage the place a collection of adverse and typically costly selections on mitigation must be taken — together with reorientating proposed runways to keep away from essentially the most hazardous areas and … enacting ecological measures to cut back the attractiveness of the airport space to birds earlier than operation.“

The third step, he mentioned, is to cut back fowl strike threat as a lot as attainable by scaring off birds, „particularly close to runways, but when wanted additionally all the best way out to 13 km from the airport,“ Moores mentioned. This determine is predicated on the numbers that present 95 p.c of documented fowl strikes happen beneath 610 meters above the bottom, and an plane on a traditional strategy would descend into this zone roughly 13 km from the runway, in keeping with the ICAO.

Geese fly over Maehyangni Tidal Flat at low tide in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 13, 2020. Plans for a brand new airport within the neighborhood have obtained preliminary approval. Courtesy of Birds Korea

Moores, who has a doctorate within the conservation of avian biodiversity, has area expertise in any respect 9 talked about websites. This ranges from two to 3 visits at some websites, to greater than 200 days of fieldwork at each Saemangeum and Baengnyeong Island. He has independently reviewed 4 environmental influence assessments for airports (Jeju, Saemangeum, Busan and Muan). In 2024, he gave professional testimony in an ongoing authorized problem to the airport venture at Saemangeum, expressing grave issues concerning the fowl strike threat and impacts on biodiversity to spotlight flaws in its environmental influence research.

„We don’t but know what the investigation into the Muan air crash will discover,“ he mentioned. „Two issues do appear sure, nonetheless. The primary is the extended struggling of all these impacted by the Muan air crash — our sincerest condolences to them. The second is that if security actually is the precedence, then a assessment of airport security wants to think about not solely plane upkeep and everlasting hazards. It additionally wants to incorporate a complete and clear reassessment of the fowl strike threat.“