An Alaska Airlines jet sustained damage while landing in Alaska, for a rather unusual reason (thanks to James for flagging this)…
In this post:
Alaska 737 strikes deer on landing, sustains gear damage
This incident happened yesterday (Thursday, July 24, 2025), and involves a one-year-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 with the registration code N801AK. The aircraft was operating flight AS231, the short 253-mile hop from Anchorage (ANC) to Kodiak (ADQ).
The 39-minute flight was routine, until it came time to land on runway 26, which is 7,534 feet long. The plane touched down, but then shortly after deploying the reverse thrusters and spoilers, the aircraft seemingly hit three deer that were on the runway. The aircraft’s landing can be seen in the below video.
The plane’s landing gear was reportedly damaged, and as a result, the aircraft has been grounded in Kodiak ever since. It remains to be seen how bad the damage is, and how long the plane will remain out of service.
What an unfortunate situation all around…
As someone who loves animals, I of course hate to see them dying in an accident like this. At the same time, once the aircraft touched down, it’s not like the pilots had much of a choice, short of potentially risking the lives of passengers, or causing much more severe damage to the plane, which could impact airport operations for a long time.
Alaska is known for its wildlife, so I do wonder if these deer just darted onto the runway out of nowhere, if there maybe weren’t sufficient runway inspections, or what. Based on the video, it looks like there’s a lot of open land around the airport.
Stuff like this does happen every so often. For example, in November 2020, an Alaska Boeing 737 hit a bear while landing in Yakutat (YAK). In that incident, the plane sustained significant damage, especially to its left engine.
Bottom line
An Alaska Boeing 737 MAX had quite a dramatic landing in Kodiak, as three deer were on the runway shortly after the plane touched down. There’s not much that could’ve been done to avoid them, and it appears that unfortunately all of them were hit.
It’s just a reminder of why Alaska is often called the Last Frontier…
What do you make of this Alaska 737 incident in Kodiak?
Deer aren't not very prevalent here.
Kodiak yes.
Moose and bears here.
The dear that died, were blacktail. Not much bigger than a dog.
err, were the deer ingested?? I don't see 3 corpses on the runway, tho the resolution is low.
Pretty awful regardless but even more so if so...
Just like the birds on certain runways..there needs to be some policing before landing by grounds team!!
Sometimes the wildlife get their revenge. Like, the plane that just crashed in Alaska because it was overweight with moose meat, and had moose antlers strapped to a strut. They do that, in Alaska.
Very far away from Alaska, but I’ve seen more dead deer on the roads this year in the Northeast than ever. The population seems to be exploding all over North America. We need to broadly reintroduce predators (mainly wolves and cougars) nationwide.
While living along the Hudson Valley in New York, I must of hit 6 to 8 deer along the back roads over 8 years. Was told that due to the dearth of hunters as compared to years past, the deer population had gotten out of hand. Gun control has its drawbacks. =:-)
Oh Deer.
Perhaps AA can work out a deal with AY to offload the venison. Reindeer burgers in the Plat lounge, yum!
How are repairs typically carried out in more remote airports like these?
Crew is flown in with any necessary parts.
I don't care about the deer. Thank god the people are okay.
I don’t care about the people… poor deer
Alaska Airlines also has the sole distinction of being the only airline to collide midair with a fish! The so-called "salmon strike" happened in 1987.
Our airport, PADQ, has construction going on. There is only one parking spot for 737 aircraft right now so all Alaska Airlines flights are canceled until they get the plane fixed. Tire damage is reported, but the full extent of the damage is yet unknown. People are having to pay for charter flights to get off the island, prices as high as $800 a seat.
As to the runway inspections, before each 737 arrival...
Our airport, PADQ, has construction going on. There is only one parking spot for 737 aircraft right now so all Alaska Airlines flights are canceled until they get the plane fixed. Tire damage is reported, but the full extent of the damage is yet unknown. People are having to pay for charter flights to get off the island, prices as high as $800 a seat.
As to the runway inspections, before each 737 arrival DOT checks the runway and flushes any birds that may be of danger at the ocean end. Where the deer came from it’s possible that hey we’re not visible during that inspection. It’s impossible to fence the entire airport as it opens to the water and to the USGS base which is large and has lots of potential places for wildlife to enter.
Looks like Alaska Airlines is flying again this morning.
Aww, those poor deer. What an inconvenient place to have to carry out repairs on an aircraft, too. AS only has 5 frames of the B38M; fortunately I think the only route where they “must” use them (or take a giant payload hit, I guess) is ANC-JFK-ANC.
As sad as it is to see it firsthand and as much as it sucks to have to repair the plane, look at the bright side. There's no shortage of deer in Alaska.