Pilot tried to avoid a turtle on the runway just before a deadly plane crash
A pilot in a deadly small-plane crash in North Carolina earlier this month tried to avoid a turtle on the runway just before the crash, investigators said.
The Universal Stinson 108 plane crashed on June 3 in Farmington, North Carolina, at about 11:45 a.m., according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which issued a preliminary report on June 18. The pilot and one passenger were killed and another passenger was seriously injured, and the plane was "destroyed," the report said.
According to the report, the plane departed from runway 2 at the Sugar Valley Airport in Mocksville, North Carolina, about 20 miles outside of the Winston-Salem metro area, and then flew around the traffic pattern. As the plane prepared to land, an operator warned the pilot that there was a turtle on the runway.
Looking out the airport office window, the operator said they saw that "the pilot landed about 1,400 ft down the 2,424 ft runway and then lifted the right main wheel to avoid the turtle," the report said.
A man who was cutting grass at the end of the runway also told investigators he saw the pilot lift the wheel to avoid the turtle. He then saw the wings begin to rock back and forth. The plane took off again, and the man soon after heard a large crash and saw smoke.
The plane crashed into a forested area about 225 feet away from the end of the runway and caught fire, the report said.
How often do animals cause plane crashes?
It's pretty rare for an animal to cause a plane crash, and the most common animal-related crashes are caused by bird strikes, when birds collide with planes, sometimes damaging engines or wings. Of the 12,368 plane crashes recorded by the NTSB between 2012 and 2021 (2,269 of which were fatal), 75 listed a bird strike as a defining event; six were fatal crashes.
Other wildlife encounters, which could include collisions with animals or maneuvers taken to avoid them, totaled 46 crashes during that time, none of which were fatal.
On April 28, two people were killed and one was injured when a Cessna T207 crashed near Nanwalek, Alaska, the NTSB said. The pilot in that crash apparently sharply turned to avoid a dog on the runway and lost control while trying to land, witnesses reported.
A pilot was killed in a 2017 plane crash that was likely caused by his own dog in the passenger seat, the NTSB said in a report. The plane crashed into an Iowa cornfield on July 1, 2017. Investigators said the likely cause of the crash was the dog coming into contact with the plane's controls, causing the pilot to lose control. The dog sustained only minor injuries and was spotted running through the cornfield after the accident, but was caught by first responders and treated by a veterinarian. The pilot was identified in news reports as 90-year-old Jerry Naylor, a former commercial pilot. His son told investigators he routinely flew with his dog and had built a plywood device to block the dog from touching the controls.