Troublesome Termites

Submitted by Marcel Stieber

 Every few weeks something happens at the airfield that is a pleasant reminder that we are in the West African bush. Today's reminder came whilst mowing the main runway. The recent rains and hungry bugs lead way to a fresh set of termite mounds covering the threshold of Runway 01. I'm not taking just one or two, rather several dozen of these little brown mounds that appear like mushrooms all over the runway. Sometimes they are quite soft and not much of a bother, but often they are sun-hardened dirt speed bumps which can be hazardous to our aircraft. Fortunately one of our daily safety operations is the morning FOD (Foreign Object Debris) removal walk where several people walk the entire length of the runway to check for stones, sticks, and of course termite mounds.

Maintaining a safe airfield and safe flying operations requires a lot of diligence and hard work from everyone to ensure the safety of the site and ultimately that of our people.

The photos show both the outside and crawling inside of one of these mounds!