737 hits bear during landing

The poor bear.. how does something as big as a bear end up on a runway? Aren't most (at least big) US airports fenced to high hell?
 
Cape Smythe B-99 in the village formerly known as Barrow, AK.

I worked for this company at the time but was not at the airport when Mr Bear decided to take a walk on the ramp.

When you are the top of the food chain, you can walk anywhere you want to.

pm4goynjfic51.jpg
 
Interesting that a new show premiered last night on the Smithsonian Channel, Ice Airport Alaska. They showed a wildlife guy that his whole job is to try and keep the airport clear of wildlife. Including the seaplane base on Lake Hood. He was inspecting the perimeter fencing for places where the bears dig underneath. He would patch up the area and move on. Kind of an interesting show. Worth the DVR space at least.
 
X3 Skier said:
From the picture, it looks like it was close to going into the fan.

In all the engine ingestion tests I participated in back in the day, I will say with great certainty we never tried a bear.

Cheers
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It would leave a grizzly mess, that's for sure!
 
AKBill said:
NUMEROUS BIRDS; BEAR AND MOOSE ON & INVOF RY.
Bears can climb most fences
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Also, Yakutat has a population of less than 700. I'm guessing airport fence maintenance isn't one of the paid positions.
 
RyanShort1 said:
How did they know it's cub was 2 years old???
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Black bear cubs generally hang out with mom for two years, after which she runs them off to find their own territory.

If brown bears do the same (and I don't really know if that is the case), then a cub that's too big to be a yearling but still following a mature female could be assumed to be no more than two years old.
 
RyanShort1 said:
How did they know it's cub was 2 years old???
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By its size. Brown cubs tend to stay with mama for about 2-2.5 years. At 1 year they tend to be a bit smaller than the sow and at 2 they tend to be a bit larger than the sow especially for boar cubs.
 
Tantalum said:
The poor bear.. how does something as big as a bear end up on a runway? Aren't most (at least big) US airports fenced to high hell?
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One can easily walk out on to many runways around here without ever encountering a fence.
 
I've seen a turtle (actually aborted the take-off for that one) and just a few days ago, three raccoons, but thankfully no bear.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
less than 700
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Ah.. I wonder how often and what kind of loads that flight sees.. 737 is a lot of plane to service a town of 700.. unless it's a combi and they also use it for freight

Alaskan and far northern Canada aviation always fascinates me.. these guys operate on a different set of rules
 
Tantalum said:
Ah.. I wonder how often and what kind of loads that flight sees.. 737 is a lot of plane to service a town of 700.. unless it's a combi and they also use it for freight

Alaskan and far northern Canada aviation always fascinates me.. these guys operate on a different set of rules
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They have two flights a day...one starts in Seattle and hops up through Juneau, Yakutat, Cordova, and maybe one other town on the way to Anchorage, then direct back to Seattle. The other flight is Seattle direct to Anchorage, and then hopscotches down.

Airplane and boat are the only ways to get to Yakutat.
 
The one article said they did a wildlife sweep down the runway 10 minutes before scheduled arrival.

The same article said the two bears ran across as they were rolling out

The runway environment is only partially fenced.
 
There is a nice family of foxes that live at the end of runway 22 on Resnick(Ellenville N89) airport. No people to bother them and only have to avoid some taxiing aircraft a few times a day.
 
sad. no more shytting in the woods for that poor little bugger.
 
I've had to do a go-around for a particularly bold coyote. Oh, and once I saw a cloud that looked like a bunny...
 
I wonder if the bear will get a call from FSDO for roaming around in non movement areas without talking to ATC
 
Many years ago I read the report for an F-16 that got wrote off for a pig strike.... busted off nose gear and bad things ensued after that....
 
Good thing they generally don't give us food on the planes anymore. I'm sure some caterer would have been all over that.
 
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