Bear Strike i Alaska - Curt Lewis / AVweb

 

Incident: Alaska B737 at Yakutat on Nov 14th 2020, bear strike on landing An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-700, registration N615AS performing flight AS-66 from Corduva,AK to Yakutat,AK (USA), landed on Yakutat's runway 11 when the captain felt an impact at the left hand side of the aircraft. The aircraft rolled out without further incident, turned around to backtrack the runway to the apron when the crew saw a dead brown bear on the runway. A post flight inspection revealed impact damage to the left hand engine's (CFM56) inlet and cowling. Alaska's Department of Transport airport staff had inspected and cleared the runway about 10 minutes prior to landing of the flight and had not noticed any wildlife in the vicinity. The aircraft hit a female brown bear and killed the mother, her cub estimated about 2 years old remained uninjured. The airline reported the captain felt an impact at the left hand side during rollout and later saw the dead bear on the runway about 20 feet off the runway center line while taxiing to the terminal. The aircraft was scheduled to fly Anchorage,AK-Cordova-Yakutat-Juneau,AK-Anchorage, the last two sectors needed to be cancelled. The aircraft is still on the ground in Yakutat about 32 hours after landing. Alaska Jet Vs. Black Bear Marc Cook November 17, 2020 7 An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 landing at Yakutat, Alaska, on Saturday struck and killed a black bear, one of two crossing the runway. According to reports, airport crews had “cleared the runway” some 10 minutes before the jet was to arrive and had noted no wildlife. The bears were seen by the cockpit crew during the rollout after landing, just prior to impact. “The nose gear missed the bears, but the captain felt an impact on the left side after the bears passed under the plane,” a statement from Alaska Airlines said. Photos show the left engine nacelle damaged by the impact. Apparently, the black bear sow was killed but her 2-year-old cub was uninjured. None of the six passengers on board was injured.  The flight originated at Cordova and was en route to Juneau from Yakutat. Passengers originally booked on the damaged 737 were put on another aircraft and flown to Anchorage. “Our maintenance technicians are working to repair the plane, which will take a couple of days,” Alaska Airlines said.