Will Seek An AIP Grant To Help Reduce Animal Strikes On Its Runway

Arlington Municipal Airport in Arlington, TX (KGKY) has a coyote problem, and the airport is requesting an FAA AIP grant of roughly $1.2 million to help solve it.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the animals normally get onto the airport property from a nearby thicket of mesquite trees and brush, then they can run onto the runway and taxiways, endangering themselves and the occupants of the aircraft operating at the airport.

To combat the problem, the airport has requested the grant to install wildlife-resistant fencing around the airport. The project would bring KGKY into compliance with an FAA requirement that smaller airports take greater efforts to prevent collisions between airplanes and birds and land animals.

Airport manager Karen VanWinkle told the paper that timing of the funding is not clear, and it could take as long as two years for the fence to be built.

According to the FAA, other than deer, coyotes are the animals that most frequently stray onto runways.

FMI: http://wildlife.faa.gov