Wasp infestation at Australian airport increases security problem

Just when aviation thought it had enough trouble to deal with this year, an Australian airport says it is battling tiny alien invaders.

The Brisbane airport has been colonized by a species of ‘keyhole wasps’ that have evaded the biosecurity of the airport to establish nests in the most inconvenient places, threatening the safety of the plane.

The first infestation was recorded at Brisbane Airport in 2013, after keyhole wasps built nests on the instruments of an Etihad A330, causing it to be diverted on a trip to Singapore. A recent report has shown that the wasp population has only increased. Native to Central America, keyhole wasps have a habit of building nests in tiny cavities. According to the new report from the Australian Bureau of Transport Safety, aircraft airspeed indicators are taken particularly with the “pitot” tubes.

The speed at which insects work is shocking. The Etihad A330 was only on the runway for a couple of hours between flights, but this was more than enough for the nest-building wasps to do their job.

“They are very determined,” said Alan House of Eco Logical Australia. CNN. “These guys just need to find a place to nest. Lay a caterpillar, lay an egg, seal it.”

Although the insects were thought to have been sent packing, the wasps were more difficult to eradicate than previously thought.

Since Etihad’s initial flight, Brisbane International Airport has recorded 26 more incidents. The invasive species is in Australia to stay. In response, Brisbane Airport and Qantas partnered with Biosecurity Queensland to commission an investigation into dealing with insects.

Published in the public access magazine PLOS ONE last week, the report showed that more than an inconvenience, wasps could cause major problems for air travel.

The authors described the phenomenon as an “emerging insect-airplane interaction that is a potentially lethal threat to flight safety” and that the “consequences and costs of not understanding this threat could be catastrophic.”

Previous flight safety incidents have been attributed to wasps where they are endemic. After the 1996 Birgenair Flight 301 incident, in which 189 passengers died, Dominican air accident investigators likely caused “small bug remains” on the aircraft’s instruments.

It is not known how the insects got to Australia from Central America. However, the first reported sightings of keyhole wasps were in 2010, however, there is currently no state plan to eliminate the insects. Because invasive species do not pose a risk to agriculture or a direct danger to people, there is currently no government directive to eradicate wasps.

However, this could change, following the 3-year investigation of Qantas, Queensland and Brisbane Airport.

Compared to the risk to air traffic posed by birds or other wildlife, keyhole wasps are small but growing.

“Something like a wasp is considered more of a low-level risk,” House said. “The chances of something happening are pretty small, but there is still a chance of it happening.”