Window Seat

AUTHORITIES at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport have enlisted twenty pigs in an experiment which will hopefully make flights less prone to bird strikes.

The gobbling grunters are being deployed on nearby farmland where sugar beet was recently harvested, in the hope they will stuff themselves on any leftovers and leave nothing at all to attract birds.

The fields are “dangerously close” to flight paths at Schiphol, which is Europe’s third busiest airport, according to local newspaper De Telegraaf.

“The pigs were immediately brought to the field within 12 hours of the sugar beet harvest,” said farmer Josse Haarhuis, who enlisted a firm called Buitengewone Varkens (“Extraordinary Pigs”) to provide the protective porkers.

It’s hoped that the safety swine will also frighten off geese during the six-week trial.

Specially installed “bird radar” will track how effective the pilot scheme is, with a second plot where sugar beet was recently similarly harvested left hog-free to compare the impact.

Schiphol currently employs a 20-strong team of bird controllers who work 24/7 to scare off avian invaders.