Stray animals on the runways are fast turning into a major safety nightmare in most airports across the country as Thursday night's incident of a Kingfisher Airlines plane hitting a stray dog on the runway shows.

While the bird-hits are a rare phenomenon, animals straying onto the runway are a routine at many airports in India, admitted an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

According to AAI officials, pilots are scared of animals straying on the runway.

The AAI has been forced to seek help from voluntary organisations like Frendicoes to clear the stray dogs from Delhi's IGI airport premises.

Recently, an Air India aircraft had a narrow escape when it hit an Indian blue bull during landing at Kanpur airport in Uttar Pradesh.

There was also an incident earlier where a cow had strayed on to the Jaipur airport runway. AAI officials admit that airports like Ahmedabad are suffering from a bird menace.

Officials here said Nagpur airport is also fighting the menace of stray animals. Last year a Jet Airways aircraft had a bird-hit while carrying the Australian and Indian cricket teams to Mumbai.