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Atlas / NTSB / NYC02LA081

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC02LA081

2002-04-07 Louisa, Virginia, United States Airport · LKU None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N2375Z

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH 23

Year of manufacture

1962 · 40 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19621206

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A225A0

Registrant of record

MORRISSETT JAY DEAN

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The airplane's inadvertent collision with a deer while landing at night. A factor in the accident was the night condition.

Factual narrative

On April 7, 2002, about 2130 eastern daylight time, a Beech BE-23, N2375Z, was substantially damaged while landing at the Louisa County/Freeman Field Airport (LKU), Louisa, Virginia. The certificated private pilot and three passengers were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed for the flight that originated from Hummel Field Airport, Saluda, Virginia. The personal flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. According to the pilot, the airplane was landing on runway 9, a 4,301-foot long, 100-foot wide, asphalt runway. During the landing roll the pilot noticed a deer in the distance, and when the airplane was approximately 5 feet above the runway a deer struck the right side of the airplane. The pilot executed a "go-around," and noticed he had limited movement of the yoke due a "jammed" stabilator; however, the pilot landed without further incident. An examination of the airplane revealed a buckled fuselage, and a substantially damaged stabilator. While landing at night, a deer struck the right side of the airplane which buckled the fuselage and substantially damaged the horizontal stabilizer. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2002_NYC02LA081.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (go-around). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗