Airport: no mention of sewage bird strike risk in mid February

Crux spent the entire afternoon of February 13, 2025 with the team that manages the birdstrike risk at Queenstown airport. Any problem with the Shotover sewage plant was not mentioned - at all.

We published a feature article and 10 minute video interview with Juliet Breen, Queenstown airport's Head of Operations and Compliance on February 14, for Crux subscribers.

To the best of our knowledge it is the most extensive article ever published on Queenstown airport's birdstrike risk from any news platform. The article and video interview are re-published below.

Surely if the sewage birdstrike issue was real, this would have been the time to not only mention it - but feature it?

Battle of the Birds

(Crux February 14, 2025)

It’s such a classic conflict - modern jet aircraft vs. the humble bird. Both can damage each other and its a hard situation to manage.

The team at Queenstown airport was able to take Crux on a tour of their battlefield this week and the good news is that they have everything as much under control as is possible. And it’s a tricky job.

The birds are always quick to learn and defeat all of the defensive tactics deployed by the airport - but the airport can stay one or two steps ahead by having hundreds of different plans up their sleeves. In the end they have guns to kill birds - but most of the time that’s not necessary.

For instance in the main image above is a device that has data recordings stored of over 30 different bird species’ distress calls. Juliet Breen (in the photo) , Head of Operations, Compliance & Safety explains how everything works in our video interview below.

Helping her is Royden Cullimore one of the airport’s three Emergency Service Crew Chiefs who has a vast range of bird removal systems at his disposal including a bright orange pistol that rather impressively fires a selection of bright and noisy fireworks at any uninvited birds (that all of them - especially plovers.)

Royden Cullimore with his firework-firing anti bird pistol.

There’s also bright shiny devices that spin in the wind and gas powered cannons that have the power to make humans jump out of their skin - let alone our little feathered friends.