Avoid a turtle and crash?

Bill

Bill

Touchdown! Greaser!
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If this has been posted, my apologies.

www.usatoday.com

Pilot tried to avoid a turtle on the runway just before a deadly plane crash

It's not common for an animal to cause a plane crash, and most cases involve bird strikes, data shows.
www.usatoday.com

Don’t think I would do a thing to try to avoid a turtle on landing. In the motorcycle world, we have a saying WRT critters. Small enough to eat in one sitting? Hit it. Bigger than that, try to avoid.
 
I once went around at PHL because the airplane in front of us reported a turtle in the middle of the runway while rolling out. That was one of the more interesting PAs I've had to make. :)
 
During my PP training my tower warned about a turtle on the rwy. My CFI reached for the PTT and said, "I can't miss this opportunity!", "Turtle in sight!"

Some poor airport guy had to drive out with a pickup and grab a very large, very angry snapping turtle and take him back to a retaining pond near the tower.
 
I guess the phrase "turn turtle" has a double meaning here.
 
I was inbound to a grass field fly-in a few years ago at Moontown, AL. While on downwind I spotted a large turtle going across the runway and called it out to the guy managing traffic via handheld. He sent a helper out to grab it and expedite its trip to the other side of the field. It was plenty big to ruin someone's day if they hit it. Still surprises me that I saw it from pattern altitude and the guy in the tower didn't see it from 50' away. The radio calls were interesting.
 
Hengelo said:
“Toes limbs”
Fluxed that for you ;)
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It is about a mile walk from my front door down to the Chattahoochee river. There are trails near the river with nicely placed boardwalks over some of the swampy areas/beaver ponds. When I was walking down there a couple of weeks ago, there was a snapper in the water adjacent to one of the boardwalks. Things like that just remind me of my fear phobia respect for snapping turtles.
 
"Looking out the airport office window, the operator said they saw that "the pilot landed about 1,400 ft down the 2,424 ft runway and then lifted the right main wheel to avoid the turtle," the report said."

Wonder why the pilot opted to land so long-the landing roll for the 108 is just under 1K feet?
Likely realized that he was out of runway and tried to go around but couldn't clear the trees.
 
Two turtles yesterday one small one about 100 ft from the approach end of the runway as I was departing, called the tower then took off around it while the other much larger one was on the taxiway as we departed the runway. Perfect timing
 
I have seen plenty of animals on the runway except:

Turtle
Polar bear
Wolverine
King Kong
Godzilla

Plus a few others...
 
tobnpr said:
"Looking out the airport office window, the operator said they saw that "the pilot landed about 1,400 ft down the 2,424 ft runway and then lifted the right main wheel to avoid the turtle," the report said."

Wonder why the pilot opted to land so long-the landing roll for the 108 is just under 1K feet?
Likely realized that he was out of runway and tried to go around but couldn't clear the trees.
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He probably got his private certificate in 40 hours.
 
Early in my PPL training at KPHF, a gaggle of turkeys made their way onto the approach end of the active. An AirTran 777 had just landed before they stepped up on to the pavement. My instructor and I were holding short for departure in our C172. AirTran reported the turkeys to the tower and we saw them clearly. Instructor tells me "my controls" and then calls the tower "We'll take care of the turkeys." "Use caution" replied the nice lady in the tower. CFI proceeds to turn the plane around so our tail is facing the gaggle. Throttles up to 1700 RPM or so and the turkeys literally begin rolling back down the hill like beach balls. CFI turns the plane back around and gives me back the controls. Nice tower lady is laughing on frequency that we're cleared for take off. We saved lives that day.

Still one of my favorite hangar stories.

But on the more serious note on the incident at hand...that seems a very aggressive maneuver. Monday-morning-quarterbacking, of course but I would think drifting off the centerline would be a better option if seen in time. I suspect hitting a turtle of any size would be unfriendly to the landing gear.
 
I had one of those really turbulent and windshear kind of day once. Coming in to land on a somewhat short runway and right before touchdown I see 4 big ass deer run across like 100 feet from the plane. I got distracted by the deer and hit the rwy hard and bounced up and went around. It was super close and scary and at night.
 
ahmad said:
I had one of those really turbulent and windshear kind of day once. Coming in to land on a somewhat short runway and right before touchdown I see 4 big ass deer run across like 100 feet from the plane. I got distracted by the deer and hit the rwy hard and bounced up and went around. It was super close and scary and at night.
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Whole 'nother meaning to "deer caught in the headlights".
Bad enough with a vehicle. Landing light? I'd have sharted myself- or worse.
 
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