An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 struck at least two deer—possibly three—while landing at Kodiak Airport on Thursday morning, damaging the aircraft’s landing gear and prompting the cancellation of all scheduled passenger flights for the remainder of the day.
The incident occurred around 8 a.m. as the aircraft was completing its landing rollout. Despite the unusual runway hazard, the plane was able to taxi safely to the terminal, and there were no injuries reported among passengers or crew.
The collision caused damage to the plane’s landing gear, which will be repaired locally in Kodiak. In the meantime, operations were temporarily suspended, and passengers scheduled to travel to or from the island were being rebooked on alternate flights.
In November of 2020, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-700 struck and killed a brown bear sow during landing at the Yakutat airport.
Too wild!
Looks like some contractor is going to be installing Hi-Fence around the Airport in the near future!
Runway kill. PETA will probably file a suit against Alaska Air tomorrow.
Just hilarious. Clever!
Where is the fencing at the airport? Nothing got sucked into the engines? Tower did not notice wildlife? Bet the fence was held together with Boeing door plug bolts? There will be more to this story…
Maybe the deer were protesting climate change and wanted to emulate their human counterparts by blocking roadways with their bodies.
Oh so funny jim! Huhlarious!!
Where was the coast guard marksman who is in charge of clearing any animal obstruction from the runway?
Is that a real thing?
“prompting the cancellation of all scheduled passenger flights for the remainder of the day.” Is it just me who thinks this is an over reaction? Scrape what’s left of the deer off the runway and carry on….
The costs of the damage and delays from this one incident would probably covered the cost of proper fencing.
true
Fence would divert deer and bear to the road as the runway is on the ocean.
Hope they paint deer images per killed or wounded on the exterior of the cockpit a la fighter planes!