Bats put aircraft in a spin

Bats forced a flight to circle the airport five times on Wednesday night.

Joel Peters

A FLIGHT into Hervey Bay was forced to circle the airport five times on Wednesday night after a colony of bats took to the skies above the airport blocking the landing strip.

The flight from Brisbane was forced to circle the airport for more than 15 minutes according to Hervey Bay man Terry Wilson, who was a passenger on the evening flight.

"The first officer came on the radio and told us that there was a colony of bats flying over the airport and that we had been advised to maintain altitude," Mr Wilson said.

"I've been flying in and out of Hervey Bay for more than eleven years and I've never had this happen before."

He said the flight crew handled the situation well, though some passengers were unhappy with the flying mammals causing the delay.

"There were a lot of tourists on the plane," Mr Wilson said.

"So having something like bats stop us from landing wasn't really selling the area to them.

"It was just a bad way to be introduced to the area."

Bat colonies continued to create problems in other locations with residents in Gayndah still eyeing riverbank bat populations suspiciously.

North Burnett Regional Council mayor Joy Jensen said the flying pests were a problem the council was determined to fix.

"We have developed a long-term plan that will hopefully discourage bats from returning to the area," she said.

"They have been here since the floods in early 2011, so we have really had enough of them."

The location of the bats had also changed.

Cr Jensen said the bats had moved from the east side of the bridge to the west side.

"The problem we have now is that the bats are roosting at the back of St Joseph's school," she said.

"That is totally unacceptable, so we will be taking more drastic measures to move them on."

Cr Jensen said biosecurity officers had also frequented the area near the bats roosts to conduct faeces tests.

"At the moment they are monitoring the bats droppings to ensure they aren't carrying any diseases," she said.

"So we are really looking to move the bats on permanently so that there is no risk to the people of Gayndah."

The North Burnett Regional Council planned to present its plan to the Department of Environment and Resource Management in the next few weeks to extend the length of its current damage mitigation permit.