Venice Airport Forced to Close After Being ‘Invaded’ By Seagulls, Uses Falconer to Clear Runway

An Italian airport was forced to temporarily shut down after its runway was “invaded” by a large number of seagulls, causing flights to have to be redirected, delayed, or even canceled.

At 9:45 a.m. local time Friday, Venice’s Marco Polo Airport was closed after hundreds of seagulls blocked the runway.

Save, the airport’s management company, said that they immediately began looking for tools to ward off the seagulls, and ended up recruiting a falconer and an acoustic deterrent.

“When the problem was discovered, the usual activities necessary to guarantee full safety for passengers and operators began,” the company told The Guardian. Save added that they made sure that the deterrent would “respect the fauna while guaranteeing safety at the same time.”

Ten flights that were supposed to depart between 9:40 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. ended up being canceled, and dozens of other flights were delayed, according to the airport’s website. Four arrivals also had to be canceled due to the size of the flock, and several others were delayed or diverted to land at different airports.

One of the diverted flights was carrying the president of the Veneto region Luca Zaia, according to Italian news outlets. Zaia’s flight from Rome to Venice reportedly ended up circling for 25 minutes before being sent to Trieste. The president told the outlets that about 200 seagulls had been preventing his flight from landing. 

Normal operations were able to resume by 11:20 a.m., and the airport issued an apology to its visitors whose plans were affected, as reported by the BBC. Bird strikes can cause damage to the planes, and they most commonly occur during takeoff and landing.