American Airlines jet makes emergency landing after striking deer at airport

An American Airlines regional jet that was taking off at Charlotte Douglas International Airport struck a deer at about noon Wednesday, causing the crew to declare an emergency and return to the airport.

The American Eagle plane was headed to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, in Mississippi, with 44 passengers and four crew members, aboard, American spokeswoman Katie Cody said. The CRJ-700 struck the deer during its takeoff roll. The flight crew declared an emergency and then did a flyover so personnel on the ground could inspect it for damage prior to attempting a landing.

“5320, you are showing you’re trailing some kind of vapor or something off the right wing,” an air traffic worker can be heard telling the flight crew on an air traffic recording from the Charlotte Douglas tower.

“We copy and we understand,” the flight crew replies.

The jet landed on runway 18 Left/36 Right, and passengers evacuated on the runway. They were returned to the terminal on buses, Cody said, and no injuries were reported.

Firefighting crews met the plane and sprayed flame retardant because it was leaking jet fuel, Cody said.

The runway reopened shortly after 2 p.m. after an inspection and after the plane was towed away.

Charlotte Douglas spokeswoman Lee Davis said the airport will evaluate how the deer got on the runway as part of its wildlife management plan. Surrounded by over 19 miles of barbed wire-topped perimeter fencing, Charlotte Douglas is also ringed by thousands of acres of wooded land conducive to deer.

Globally, wildlife strikes killed about 260 airplane passengers and destroyed nearly 250 aircraft from 1990 through 2015, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report.

“Factors that contribute to this increasing threat are increasing populations of large birds and increased air traffic by quieter, turbofan-powered aircraft,” the report said.

In 2015, birds were involved in about 96 percent of the reported strikes, terrestrial mammals in 1.6 percent, bats in 2.3 percent and reptiles in 0.3 percent, according to the report. Although the number of reported U.S. strikes dramatically increased over the years, the number of reported damaging strikes declined since 2000.

The most famous case cited by the FAA was the emergency forced landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, after Canada geese were ingested in both engines of the Airbus 320. All passengers safely escaped the landing. The pilot, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, became a folk hero and the subject of the Hollywood movie “Sully.”

Flight 1549 was Charlotte-bound, and the plane is on permanent display at the Carolinas Aviation Museum near the airport.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "American Airlines jet makes emergency landing after striking deer at airport."