Manchester Airport staff were left with quite the predicament yesterday when a flamingo was spotted on a runway. The pink-feathered bird forced closure of one of Manchester’s runways for five hours whilst crew attempted to get the bird to move on. Police were called, who attempted to capture the bird with nets, but it evaded their grasp time and time again, simply landing on a different part of the runway.
The flamingo was initially spotted on Sunday night, and staff armed with night vision goggles attempted to pin down its location, but it continued to remain aloof. Officials thought it was all over until the long-legged pink creature was again spotted at 8AM. Using specially modified 4x4s – employed usually to scare away groups of smaller birds – staff tried to frighten the flamingo into leaving, but it was undeterred.
Staff even set off flares and played loud music in an attempt to get the flamingo away from the runway, but it continued its stay for a total of five hours before flying off on his own accord. It remains unclear where the flamingo, nicknamed Ringo by airport staff, actually came from, but people kept a close watch on the airfield for the rest of the day in case it came back.
A Manchester Airport spokesperson explained that the flamingo incident didn’t ground any planes, but it did force closure of runway 2.
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