Airborne albatross can spot a vessel from 30km away and will consistently come in for a closer look once they do.

“They’re like drones, only intelligent,” said Weimerskirch.

The fuselage, full of disinfectant, pulsed in the ridged turbulence forty thousand feet in the air. Sent from Brize Norton, its red spill slapped the earth like a knee. For the pilots it was a pleasure to disinfect. Those on the ground, plastic knights armed with nozzles of white lightning, strode through a swarm of flies as the flapping pigeon-winged Albatross chocks. They say we’ll find balm in Gilead, but the Albatross will find nothing at all. I watch the plane seep before it jettisons 74,000 litres of chemical cleanser over everything. The knights look up - I run inside. I hear the liquid land as a bird crashes against my window. Its great white wings left a dust sketch on the glass. I approached the broken beak and mangled mass of feathers. It was clean.

Cyrus Larcombe Moore