Gulls At Sydney Airport

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 13

Gulls At Sydney Airport

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P AJ SYDNEY, May 15. The Sydney International Airport at Mascot may soon have an answer to the problem of low-flying gulls, which are a danger to jet airliners. Birds flying through the path of a jet can be scooped into an engine air intake and cause serious loss of power. The official view is that the gulls have been using a nearby rubbish dump as their breeding ground and until such ' time as the dump is closed the menace will remain. Now the Government has stepped in and has made it an offence to dump waste food near an aerodrome

where it could attract birds and create an air hazard. People breaching the nodumping regulation, which is to be policed by the DirectorGeneral of Civil Aviation, will be liable to a fine of up to £lOO. Meanwhile a search is going on for an alternative tipping site in the same general area but away from the approach paths to the airport Longer term problems at Mascot are the provisions of new and longer runways, better passenger facilities and a new highway to the city. The chief executive and general manager of Qantas (Mr C. O. Turner) emphasised these latter points on his return from a four-week tour through Hong Kong to London. Sydney Airport could not

be improved before 1968, but the planning must be started immediately, he said. “As a result of my discussions with aircraft manufacturers, it seems the runways should be at least 10,000 ft long for super-sonic aircraft, but that is beyond the extensions now planned,” said Mr Turner. Every pressure would have to be put on the authorities for an adequate terminal building by 1968. “In the meantime we must get by on the inadequate one we have now,” he said. On the problem of access between the airport and the city, Mr Turner said: “There is little use flying passengers in sub-sonic aircraft at 550 miles an hour from America in 13 or 14 hours when it takes them another hour to get to the city,” he said.