Kathmandu, Oct.15: Black topping the entire airport is the only permanent solution to the bird hit problem at Nepal’s only international airport making takeoffs and landings dangerous at Tribhuvan International Airport and threatening the lives of passengers, a pilot said.

“There is grass on both sides of the runway. After sunshine, earthworms twiddle out of the ground on to the runway attracting birds. The only permanent solution is to blacktop the entire airport.

“Flying is very dangerous. Smaller aircraft can manoeuvre. But we can have a real dangerous situation when an engine of a bigger aircraft sucks in a bird,” the Nepali pilot who preferred anonymity said. He flies with the state owned Royal Nepal Airlines.

Shooting birds or the removal of a garbage disposal site just metres away from the airport is not a permanent solution.

“The problem will continue to persist,” he said.

Austria’s  Lauda Air Boeing 767 again hit a bird for the second time in three days but landed safely Saturday with 203 passengers on a flight from Vienna.

Six  hits incidents have been reported in nearly two months during landings and takeoffs prompting international operators to issue a threat to withdraw from Nepal is the menace is not tackled.

The threat prompted the government to declare the area around the airport periphery a security zone; disposal of garbage at the dumping site ended; appeals were issued not to dispose off carcasses in the open.

Some said this was only a half-hearted measure.

“We must solve Kathmandu’s waste disposal problem and we have to prevent disasters as well. Now we will not insist on disposing the garbage near the airport,” Kathmandu’s Deputy Mayor Bidur Mainali was quoted as saying.

Nepal’s tourism industry just recovered when Indian Airlines resumed its flights to Nepal after a six month hiatus alleging security lapses at the airport that led to the hijacking of its Airbus on a flight to New Delhi from Kathmandu on Christmas eve by suspected Kashmiri militants.

The industry with netted $190 million in 1999 will suffer further if international airlines now carry out their threat.

Some other suggestions mooted to eliminate the problem are audio and visual techniques to scare away the birds or use of repellent chemicals.