The pilot reported that he conducted a visual approach to land at a grass airstrip in Hillsboro, Illinois, with tall crops adjacent to the runway.
As he was landing the Maule MXT7, a deer jumped out of the crops onto the runway.
He pulled the nose up to avoid hitting the deer and the airplane stalled.
The airplane hit the ground and “flipped” two times, substantially damaging the tail, wings, and fuselage. The pilot sustained serious injuries in the crash.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack while attempting to avoid a deer during landing, resulting in an aerodynamic stall.
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This July 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Deer Alerts – or Deer Whistles are less than $10 everywhere. They can be found at your local hardware or auto parts store. We swear by them. Just as in this accident, most times, the deer will jump out too late to be avoided. The high pitch from about 30mph+ of airflow through the devices causes the deer and other animals to stand still until you pass. I’ve seen it work while living in the mountains in Colorado. Driving the mountain highways late at night I had some driving lights that really illuminated the road ahead. You could see the deer and elk moving about in the open fields along the side of the road. Once I installed the alerts, I noticed they were no longer moving. As I’d pass, I could see they were all looking at where I had just come from. We have them on all our vehicles including our airplane.
At least the pilot did something to avoid hitting the poor deer. May be (just may be) it was to late to add a lot of power and trying to float or go around. Anyway, the pilot has a good soul to preserv the deer.