Moose Droppings

Wildlife and Aircrafts

Mar 06, 2007 @ 12:39 am by Moose

Rex over Deer Camp Blog and a few others sent me the story of a helicopter crash caused by a moose in Alaska.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A helicopter is not necessarily a match for an angry moose.
Instead of slowing down after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, a moose charged a hovering helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft’s tail rotor and forcing it to the ground.
Neither the pilot nor the biologist was injured, but the moose was maimed by the spinning rotor and had to be euthanized, wildlife officials said.
“It just had to be one of those quirky circumstance. Even dealing with bears and goats and moose and wolves, this is pretty unusual and truly a very unique situation,” said Doug Larsen, regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation.

This is an odd story and in some ways has a hint of humor despite the moose getting killed. I told someone that maybe we should look at importing some for Pocosin Lake National Wildlife Refuge to help slow the Navy’s plans for the OLF.

Moose vs. aircraft are far from common but collisions with birds are far more common and makes the plan to locate a OLF in the heart of a major migratory bird sanctuary seems ridiculous.

I have found some interesting reading on the FAA site Airport Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Home Page. It would seem that they would strongly discourage building an airport in an area like the one the Navy has selected. It would also seem that by looking at this document neither the Air force nor the Army would consider this as a viable option I wonder why the Navy would.

If you read about many of the accidents that do take place it seems that the Standard Operating Procedure for jets on the verge of crashing is that they dump the jet fuel prior to the crash. What will the environmental impact be on this pristine land should jet fuel get dumped all over it?
Whether it’s a moose, a flock of geese, or some black birds an aircraft going down is not a good thing. It makes no sense to me to put our military pilots at risk by having them doing touch and goes between the swans, geese, and the red wolfs’.