MIA ordered to pay Air Malta €250,000 for 2004 bird strike

The Court of Appeal, presided by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and judges Tonio Mallia and Joseph Azzopardi, has ordered the Malta International Airport to pay Air Malta over a quarter of a million euros for a 2004 bird strike. 

The judgement, delivered on 30 September, threw out MIA’s appeal and reconfirmed a sentence handed down over four years ago.

MIA must now pay the national airline and Shield Insurance more than €250,000 for the damages sustained by an Air Malta Airbus airliner back in December 2004.

Flight KM100 to London was preparing for take-off, when a flock of starlings flew straight into the jet’s fly path, causing substantial damage to the plane – parts and repair works amounted to Lm107,551; Shield Insurance covered Lm51,961. For safety reasons, passengers were asked to disembark.

It transpired that, at the time, the only bird control and reduction mechanism at the airport was a truck equipped with a device to scare birds away. Instead of allowing the vehicle to inspect the runway, the pilots were given clearance to take off. 

The MIA had objected to the arguments raised, stating that the Convention on International Civil Aviation provided guidelines and recommendations but did not impose legal obligations. MIA had also argued that it was not responsible for the taxiways and runways, as these were controlled by the Malta Air Traffic Services Ltd. MIA said it was MATS who did not give the vehicle clearance to inspect the runway.

However, the court argued that MIA, as the airport operator, should have ensured that the adequate bird control measures were in place.

Prior to the 2004 incident, the number of inspections amounted to two and were then raised to four.

Whilst the MIA proceeded to appeal the 2012 decision, the Court of Appeal said it agreed with the decision delivered by the first court, arguing that it was not convinced that MIA had exhausted all measures to avoid such an incident. 

The judges argued that MIA, with better co-ordination with MATS, could have easily ensured the morning inspection of the area, ensuring the birds were dispersed and the incident would have been avoided.