An Alaska Airlines jet sustained damage while landing in Alaska, for a rather unusual reason (thanks to James for flagging this)…
Continue reading: Ugh: Alaska Boeing 737 Hits Three Deer While Landing In Kodiak
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oh Deer.
Perhaps AA can work out a deal with AY to offload the venison. Reindeer burgers in the Plat lounge, yum!
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.
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.
Just like the birds on certain runways..there needs to be some policing before landing by grounds team!!
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...
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.
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. =:-)
Shouldn't they block off the airport to avoid animals from going in and were the animals not noticed on cameras to move them away or to have the plane have a short delay...
“As someone who loves animals”
If you torture and kill them to eat (or pay someone to do so) you don’t love animals.
Go vegan