A MAJOR disaster could happen if an international airport is built on the Cliffe marshes near Rochester - because the site is so close to RSPB reserves.

Advisers at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are getting increasingly worried about the threat to aircraft safety posed by birds.

The authority says: "The risk of a catastrophic accident owing to multiple engine thrust loss after a bird strike encounter with a flock of geese is rising dramatically."

Despite this, the Government is considering building an airport twice the size of Heathrow on the marshes - right in the flight paths of hundreds of thousands of birds that use the RSPB reserves in the area.

The CAA want large birds such as geese discouraged from flying within 20 miles of an international airport and suggest culling and destroying eggs as a way to end the risk.