Flying to and from the New York City area I’ve become rather familiar with weather and air traffic control delays over the years. I was delayed coming out of Vancouver on Thanksgiving weekend because they had to figure out if the plane was OK to fly without a little piece of plastic to cover the button in the cockpit that drains the lavatory. But I am happy to say that I have never been delayed due to jackals.
That’s right – jackals. And lizards, porcupines and various other animals.
It is monsoon season in India, and the heavy rains are forcing much of the local fauna to seek high ground while their homes are flooded. Apparently airports are a great place for that, especially the runways. And they don’t seem to understand that when the really big planes come in to land they should get out of the way. The animals are causing many flights to be delayed or canceled while animal control officers attempt to keep the runways clear.
“The monitor lizards — they look frightening but they are harmless animals,” Kartick Satyanarayan of the conservation group Wildlife SOS told CNN. “But they can grow about three to four feet long. And at the velocity a plane lands, the [lizards] can still cause damage.”
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