A 50-seat SkyWest Airlines commercial plane from Denver smashed through a deer Wednesday night as it descended it land at the Sheridan County Airport, the airport director confirmed Monday to Cowboy State Daily.
Everyone on the United Express flight was unhurt, and the plane taxied into the terminal “just fine,” Sheridan County Airport Robert Gill said.
SkyWest sent out mechanics who performed a seven- to eight-hour inspection on the CRJ200 aircraft Thursday and found no damage to it, added Gill.
“The deer was deceased and we had to get it cleaned off the runway,” he said, adding that it was a whitetail buck.
Asked whether the pilot had a hunting license, Gill answered with a chuckle that it wasn’t hunting season yet.
This incident, said Gill, was “extremely rare.”
“I’ve never heard of a deer strike at an airport before. And it’s very rare that we get them inside our fence,” he said.
Deer might clear the fence once or twice a year. But operations staffers check the wildlife fence once a month, and the landing area throughout the day; they usually would spot the animals right away, he added.
This deer dodged detection somehow despite several planes flying that night.
In a fenceline area near the gravel road, the bottom section of the woven wildlife fence’s two panels was pushed out some, Gill said.
“It looked like it somehow squeezed or forced its way through,” he added.
Pressure On The Deer
Zach Sanders, a mule deer conservationist and lifelong hunter, told Cowboy State Daily that, outside of the rut, deer like to remain in their normal patterns.
But pressure will drive them out, maybe even onto runways.
Though rifle season hadn’t yet started in that region, archery season was just closing on the day of the collision.
“Could be pressure from surrounding areas,” said Sanders. “Whether it be a predator or a hunter – which I guess, again, is a predator – coyotes, mountain lions, anything that could push him to do something abnormal.”
Disease, like blue tongue in a whitetail deer or chronic wasting disease in a mule deer, can also break the pattern, Sanders noted.
“And sometimes their actions don’t make sense to anybody,” he said.
SkyWest's corporate communications team said in a post-publication statement that 41 passengers were on the plane. The company reiterated that no one was injured, and said customers deplaned normally at the gate.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
