Geneva's Cointrin Airport Saturday 17 October: long lines, but quick service
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – British Airways flight A319 turned back Wednesday 14 October after striking a bird at Cointrin Airport while climbing out of Geneva, reports Aviation Herald, which tracks airline incidents. The crew reportedly landed in Geneva 12 minutes after takeoff, after noticing a burning smell: emergency services were on standby, and the flight was delayed by two hours.
The incident was not, in fact, that unusual, but it might have given pause to the crowds of people flying out of Geneva Saturday 17 October at the start of the Geneva school holidays. The new security check area, which has replaced the old passport control booths, had two long lines of travelers, but the system appeared to operate efficiently: some 300 people were moved through several security gates in 20 minutes.
Noise guns to disperse birds in a direction away from the tarmac are used after other preventive measures fail
Cointrin takes its bird incidents very seriously: “bird strikes” as they are known in the business cause the aviation world $1.1 billion a year and they can provoke deadly airline crashes, such as one at JFK airport in New York in 1975 and another in Paris in 1996. Geneva airport had more than 60 strikes in 2008, but most caused no serious harm and only a handful were responsible for more serious damage, according to airport figures.
