It was a bloody meeting for the plane that landed on 8 December 2019 at Stord Airport, Sørstokken.

During the landing, the plane from DAT hit four birds, which, among other things, caused a propeller blade to crack. The aircraft in question had to be parked, and a new aircraft had to come from Copenhagen.

Several hours late, the passengers got off guard.

In the picture you can see that the white hull has got large blood stains after the meeting with the birds.

Will take drastic action

In the last three years, there have been a total of 2146 cases of so-called “bird attack», Ie collision with birds, at Norwegian airports. Rugda is only behind two of these cases.

Now the airport at Stord is going to battle against the species that hit the plane this day in 2019, namely rugda.

“Over the years, we have tried to scare away the birds with mostly sirens, water cannons, explosive shots and frequent patrols by car without success.”

It is stated in a letter sent to the joint agricultural office of Stord and Fitjar municipalities by Finn Are Maraas, head of expression at the airport.

Rugda is a densely populated and up to 35 cm long bird, which can do a lot of damage if it hits a plane.

This time they will take more drastic action, and simply shoot the rye.

– We have shotguns standing, and have qualified personnel to take care of that bit, Maraas said.

– Has absolutely no effect

In the answer from the agricultural office, it is stated that shooting is perfectly fine, since it is ordinary hunting time on rugde until Christmas Eve.

“For the time being, we have not seen so many rugs, but it has previously been a big problem, and we wish we had been dry in case we needed to shoot them,” says the emergency manager.

Advisor Frode Falkenberg in the Norwegian Ornithological Society, says birds and planes are an eternal problem. It is new to him that rugda is a problem.

– For example, it seems a little surprising that this particular bird species is a problem, but it probably has something to do with the geographical location of the airport. Western Norway, and especially Sunnhordland / Rogaland, has a good winter population of rye, he says.

Falkenberg also does not believe that shooting rugda will have the desired effect.

– It has absolutely no effect. At this time of year, there will be a large migration of birds during the migration period, before it decreases by itself over the winter, says the ornithologist.