As you make your descent into Montpellier Méditerranée Airport in the south of France, you get an excellent view across Carmague, Europe’s largest river delta. The vast plain is home to more than 400 species of birds and its brine ponds provide one of the few European habitats for the greater flamingo. However, you don’t expect to get similar views of a Flamingo as you depart from Manchester Airport in the northwest of the UK, but that is exactly what greeted passengers flying out of the facility earlier this month.
Workers at the airport were literally left in a flap after an uninvited visitor arrived at the airport late on July 3. The reports that a Flamingo had been spotted wandering down Runway 05L/23R (Runway Two) must have initially seemed like a joke, especially after the airport's wildlife control unit failed to find the trespasser, even after calling in the local police with their night vision cameras. Although it was easy to think that this was just a wind-up or an impromptu training exercise, the case was taken very seriously due to the potential risk to aircraft operations.
It was assumed that the bird had flown away and the runway was cleared for operation. However, at 8am the following morning airport officials were shocked to find new reports of an unwelcome visitor on Runway Two. Yes, the flamingo was back and this time clearly visible in the morning sunshine. Having located the intruder, Airport staff tried to scare it off the runway using its operations vehicle. But, their efforts failed, and it confidently carried on walking along the 10,000ft landing strip.
The visitor, by then nicknamed ‘Ringo’, continued to evade capture for almost five hours as every time staff tried to get near to it, it simply flew away, only to return moment later. A wide variety of methods including flares, loud sounds and scare tactics also proved ineffective as the bird simply would not depart the airport.
As Ringo was posing a serious danger to air safety, Runway Two was closed, although this did not impact flight operations which continued on the airport’s main runway as the stand-off continued. Eventually, at just after 12:30pm, Ringo flew away from the airport site. Over the following hours staff remained on standby watching to see if he returned, but now almost four weeks later there has been no return visit from the flamingo.
The strangest part of the story is that Manchester Airport officials have no idea of the origin of Ringo. They contacted every local wildlife sanctuary at the time and none of them reported a missing flamingo. Almost a month on and they are no wiser. “It has all been a bit of a mystery,” said a spokesman for the airport.
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