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Plane hit deer during landing at California airport
An Alaska Airlines flight collided with a stray deer as it came in to land at Sonoma County Airport last week, the airline said.
A rare occurrence in the US, the deer was struck and died instantly but the plane landed safely.
Despite what was a potentially catastrophic incident, passengers were ‘largely unaware of what happened,’ according to airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan.
Egan said the plane was taken out of service for a full inspection and returned the following morning after damaged tyres were replaced.
There was no other damage to the Bombardier Q-400 turboprop.
Flight 457 had arrived from Seattle for a scheduled stop before continuing to Los Angeles.
Passengers were taken off the plane and re-accommodated on other aircraft, Egan said.
The incident also caused the cancellation of two later flights.
A similar incident took place in India at the weekend when a SpiceJet plane was forced into evasive action as it hit a herd of wild boar.
The plane careered off the runway but there were no injuries reported.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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