A brown bear died after being hit by a jetliner of Alaska Airlines on the runway of the Yakutat Airport in southeast Alaska early Sunday evening (local time). The mishap happened when the flight was landing at the airport.
The jetliner suffered some damages in the hit. However, no passenger or crew members on board the plane were hurt.
Crew members of the airport had cleared the runway 10 minutes before the landing and they didn't see any signs of wildlife during the check. However, the pilot of flight 66 saw two bears crossing the runway when the plane began to slow down after the landing, according to Anchorage Daily News.
"The nose gear missed the bears, but the captain felt an impact on the left side after the bears passed under the plane," said Alaska Airlines, according to the website.
According to Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Sam Dapcevich, the flight killed the brown bear sow, but its cub thought to be about 2 years old was unhurt.
The Boeing 737-700's pilots saw the bear lying about 6 meters from the center of the runway as the plane taxied to a parking area around 6:30 p., according to the airline.
The accident caused damages to the left engine cowling of the jet. "Our maintenance technicians are working to repair the plane, which will take a couple of days," said Alaska Airlines.
Passengers onboard the plane said they felt a bump at the time of landing. It was not clear how many passengers were travelling the flight.
Similar incident in India
Back in India, many social media users recalled the gruesome killing of a buffalo at the Surat airport by a SpiceJet flight.
In November 2014, the Boeing 737 aircraft with 140 passengers on board had collided with a buffalo that had strolled on to the runway through a gap in the airport's boundary wall, seconds before its take-off.
The accident had caused severe damage to the aircraft. The Ministry of Civil Aviation had ordered an inquiry into the incident and instructed officials to replace the fencing at all airports by concrete walls. The findings of the report are unknown.
