Skip to content

Atlas / ASRS / ACN 1937796

NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System

Jet pilot reported a near collision just before landing with a deer on the runway at OWD airport and performed a go-around.

ACN 1937796 2022-09 Small Transport, Low Wing, 2 Turbojet Eng Bird or Animal Strike Reports
LandingPart 91

What is ASRS?

The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time); anonymization placeholders are ZZZ, X, Y.

I was flying from right seat on this personal flight back from west coast, last leg. I am very familiar with this airport, and I am aware that around dusk, deer congregate on and around runway. My worst fear became reality when in the flare we saw a big deer running from left to right towards us. I immediate initiated an emergency go around, slammed the throttles full forward and pitched up to avoid a collision. In the subsequent go around procedures I may have exceeded the flaps retraction speeds, because of the adrenaline rush and the "whoa" factor. At level off attitude composed myself and cleaned up airplane per AFM. No damage done, and we avoided the deer. Returned to airport and after runway sweep by FBO, conducted uneventful landing. Contributing factor, fatigue, after long flight, broken fence at the airport, hence numerous wildlife especially at dusk. Informed authorities after event to please address the issue.

NASA classification — Anomalies

  • Conflict
  • Deviation - Speed
  • Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
  • Ground Event / Encounter

NASA classification — Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations
Environment - Non Weather Related · Human Factors
Primary Problem
Environment - Non Weather Related

ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.