OREANDA-NEWS. On 23 April 2009 was announced, that Moscow International Airport Domodedovo pursues the tradition of conducting excursions for children. On April 15th the airport was visited by children from the "Childhood" rehabilitation center and their parents.

This is not the first time that the young guests are visiting the airport, they have already been around the passenger terminal and this time they were invited on an exciting journey around the airfield.

First, the children and their parents were taken to see take-off and landing of aircrafts, after which they were invited to meet the specialists of the airports’ Ornithological service. The specialists explained the importance of protecting the airport territory from birds and demonstrated special equipment used to frighten unwanted feathered guests off the territory of the airport. Later on the children were able to meet the main helpers of the Ornithologists – hawks and falcons.

World practice shows that using specially trained hunting birds is one of the most effective ways of frightening birds off the airport territory, as usually birds get used to some of the equipment, used for frightening them off, which makes these measures a lot less effective. Hawks and falcons are natural enemies of birds, their interaction is based on instinct and is the result of millions of years of evolution. The children were able to take photos with the birds and even hold them.

At the end of the excursion the young visitors were taken to see the Domodedovo Aircraft Maintenance Base where they were able to see aircraft maintenance works, they were also invited inside an aircraft into the pilots cabin.

Domodedovo airport has conducted a series of excursions for children from the "Childhood" rehabilitation center in the framework of a regular excursion program for schoolchildren that was launched in 2008. Such events give children and their parents the opportunity to learn more about the largest airport of the country, get acquainted with pre-flight procedures and learn their way around the airport.