Jetliner hits grizzly bear. Only in Alaska…
Not the actual bear
VS.
Not the actual plane
Who wins?
The plane of course. It wasn’t even close. I mean it was close, before the bear (which for an adult female can put her at several hundred pounds) was ‘sploded.
An Alaska Airlines jetliner struck a brown bear while landing early Saturday evening, killing the animal and causing damage to the plane, officials said.
None of the passengers or crew members on board the plane were injured during the accident at the Yakutat Airport in southeast Alaska, The Anchorage Daily News reported.
The Boeing 737-700 killed the brown bear sow, but a cub thought to be about 2 years old was uninjured, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Sam Dapcevich said.
Airport crew members had cleared the runway about 10 minutes before the flight was expected to land, Dapcevich said. The plane landed after dark and crews followed normal procedures for runway checks.
The staff did not see signs of wildlife during the check, but the pilots spotted the two bears crossing the runway as the jet slowed after landing, Dapcevich said.
“The nose gear missed the bears, but the captain felt an impact on the left side after the bears passed under the plane,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
The pilots saw the bear lying about 20 feet from the center of the runway as the plane taxied to a parking area just before 6:30 p.m., the airline said.
It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on the flight. The plane departed from the town of Cordova and was scheduled to stop in Juneau after leaving Yakutat.
The left engine cowling of the jet was damaged, and the plane remained in Yakutat Sunday.
“Our maintenance technicians are working to repair the plane, which will take a couple of days,” Alaska Airlines said.
The airport is partially enclosed by a fence. Employees undergo annual wildlife hazard training and use pyrotechnics or vehicles to herd animals away, the newspaper reported.
Planes previously have been reported to hit deer, geese, caribou and other animals in Alaska, but Dapcevich said this is the first time he was aware of a bear being struck.
Crew members at the Yakutat Airport cleared the bear carcass from the runway. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was expected to collect the remains, Dapcevich said.
I really, really, really hope that when that bear went under the nose wheel the pilot (who I assume looked and sounded like Peter Graves) asked his co-pilot (who must look like, but not actually be, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) “Did you see that?” To which the co-pilot replies, “Bearly.”
Source; Fox News
Category: Who knows
The runway had been cleared, they said. Yeah, Mama Grizzly Bear obviously don’t give a shit, and I rather doubt any Alaskan would be dumb enough to attempt to dispute the matter with her. In Mama Grizzly’s defense, though, this is pretty much the only instance where she and her cub wouldn’t have the Right of Way.
Yep. Only in Alaska.
It was a mostly peaceful protest against systemic racism against BOC’s (Bears Of Color), but not much highway traffic up that way, so they decided to block traffic on the runway. You never see a Polar Bear, which happens to be white, killed by airplanes.
“Crew members at the Yakutat Airport cleared the bear carcass from the runway”
It was a grisly sight.
Grin and bear it.
Tap….
Tap….
Tap….
Ta daht Peeeesh !!!!!
I saw a full grown Alaskan Grizzly Bear fairly close while on a Field Problem in Denali National Park ordered by Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf.
He was about 150 yards away and stood up sniffing the air grunting and trying to figure out who these green clowns were intruding on his territory.
We were all assholes and elbows going the other way. I think we scared him more than he scared us !!!
14 feet tall, full grown and weighed about a ton from my vantage point and paws bigger than your head with claws on them about 8″ long !!!!
Biggest, scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life !!!!!
And that includes my mother in law first thing in the morning when she stayed at our house for a couple days !!!!!
“…ordered by Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf.
He was about 150 yards away and stood up sniffing the air grunting and trying to figure out who these green clowns were intruding on his territory.”
Okay, but I have difficulty with an image of GEN Schwarzkopf sniffing the air, never mind grunting and the rest of it, although I’m sure GEN Schwarzkopf could easily figure who the green clowns were.
My father and grandfather used to go fishing up there. Didn’t realize Yakutat could accommodate 737s.
Easily, it was a military runway at one point.
Free meat for the holidays.
Can we call it road kill?
Bear Lives Matter. Has the Alaska Target been looted and burned yet? Will the airline pay reparations to the orphaned baby bear? Has some dude named Adams adopted the baby grizzly?
I like to lay on a bearskin rug, in front of a fireplace…nekkid. Seems like Cracker Barrel has a policy against that.
Only Black Bears?
I went TDY to Eielson AFB a couple times in the 90’s. We parked our F-16’s on “the loop” which is essentially a taxiway. Several times some folks had to stop working because a moose wandered out there. if you get too close to one it will stomp you to death but they sure are beautiful creatures.
We had meese (mural of moose?) at Camp Pendleton. They would graze the Camp Del Mar Enlisted Club on Friday and Saturday nights looking for lonely Marines with poor judgment and low expectations that they could sink their hooves in to score the highly coveted and frequently awarded Dependent ID Card.