What if a Plane Landed on a Deer and Nobody Noticed (Except the Deer)?

Wednesday’s Alaska Airlines Seattle – Santa Rosa flight landed on a deer. And passengers didn’t even know.

Flight AS2475 operated by Horizon Air is a Dash 8 turboprop that would have next flown Santa Rosa – Los Angeles. It wasn’t out of service for long.

[Alaska Airlines spokesperson Bobbi] Egan said the plane itself was thoroughly inspected and the only damage was to the tires, which were replaced. The plane returned to service Thursday morning.

Sheep and goats have been known to cause flight diversions. And indeed both graze on the grounds of O’Hare airport to trim the grass. But it’s uncleer why a deer was on a Santa Rosa airport runway, other than that it’s not an especially busy taxiway since Alaska Airlines is the only commercial carrier offering service to Sonoma County.


    Fawn-in-grass” by ForestWander, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I was on that flight in April and we had a go-around at Santa Rosa because there was a coyote on the runway. Maybe they need better fences at the airport.

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