'Expect gunshots': Bin chickens to be culled over risk to airport planes
Residents in Perth have been told to expect gunshots from Monday, as a program to thin the numbers of 'bin chickens' gets underway.
The population of white ibis at the Red Hill Waste Management Facility has increased so dramatically the birds now pose a risk to planes and passengers flying in and out of Perth Airport.
Officially they are called the Australian white ibis but they are also known as the 'bin chicken' or 'tip turkey'.
The birds are master scavengers - frequenting dumpsters and tips across Perth.
Their numbers have become a major problem at the Red Hill Waste Management Facility in the hills promoting the East Metropolitan Regional Council to take drastic action.
It's obtained a licence to cull 100 of the birds.
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"A 747 pilot told me his aircraft encountered an Ibis on takeoff from Sydney and the vibrations from the engine, it took out an engine, were so severe that he could not read the instruments," West Australian Aviation editor Geoffrey Thomas said.
In a letter to nearby residents the council explains the Ibis "can carry and transmit disease ... and most importantly they pose an imminent threat to planes from bird strikes".
The Red Hill tip is within the flight path of planes coming and going from Perth airport.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says there were 135 bird strikes at Perth Airport from 2015 to 2017.
Bird strikes can bring down planes, with the most famous example being 2009's Miracle on the Hudson.
A US Airways flight struck a flock of geese and lost both engines.
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