Can Landing a Flight/Plane running over a small object/animal (like a dog) be Dangerous(TO WHAT EXTENT) ???

Question

I read in an article of a Newspaper a Boeing 747 tried to avoid a dog while landing...would it have been Dangerous for the Flight...****** if so to what extent???? ****** aren't the TIRES well prepared for such events or such high pressure and Friction Extremes?????

Answer 1

Can be catastrophic.  I have heard of aircraft hitting deer on landing severe damage can happen to the aircraft and and extreme cases could lead to the loss of the aircraft. I have seen birds go through wind screens and even radoms. Lots of damage but is far worse for the animal in question.  It's not the tires that would be the most critical, aircraft blow tires all the time on landing, its the possible damage that could result, lossof hydraulics if a line is ruptured (brakes) or steering.  I can't imagine a 747 swerving to miss a dog on the runway, I don't think the plane would have even felt the impact more risk swerving I think.

Answer 2

Does the Concord bring anything to mind?

Answer 3

Pilots are supposed to maneuver the plane.  That's what they're there for.  Maneuvering is not dangerous for the flight.  They maneuver to avoid snowplows, tugs, other aircraft, dust devils, vans, turtles, and centerlines all the time.   The tires wouldn't be hurt by a dog strike.

Answer 4

Yes it can be dangerous there have been several instances were a collision with wildlife have caused the landing gear to collapse or had the animal been sucked into the engine it could have caused an uncontained engine failure causing parts of the engine to shoot through the fuselage like bullets.

Answer 5

Pilots would simply pull back to fly over it if it is at the beginning of the runaway.  However if its in the middle where the plane has already landed, the pilot can only hope that the faint sound of the engine will scare the dogs away.  They need to put some deer horns on the landing gear, they work real awesome on my car but theres a difference of 70 mph compared to a plane flying at least 100 mph when the gear is down.  That would definitely wake up any animals on or near the runaway and scare them off.  A pilot I know for Delta zipped tied one on the front nose gear with the help of an A/P mechanic but when he landed in Fort Worth, he told me that it wasn't there.  So during the taking off or landing it got lost due to such extreme winds, its only made for 80 mph roughly.

Answer 6

Depends on the size of the animal, and the airplane, of course.  A deer on a runway versus a small Cessna, and you've got BIG problems.  A dog versus a 747?  Uh... that's all for Fido.

I've flown 747's down to Piper's and Cessna's, and I've hit all sorts of birds, a coyote, a rabbit, and something else once, I think it was a cat, while landing.  On the landing roll in a 747, it's nearly impossible to avoid an animal on the runway.  We're much more concerned about keeping the airplane on the runway than avoiding an animal.  

Yes, a large animal can do some damage to a big aircraft, but I doubt anything smaller than a deer would do much permanent damage.  Even in that event, I doubt the safety of the landing would ever be in question, but I just fly them... I'm not the engineer who designs landing gear.

Small planes don't manuvuer too well on the landing roll either, but can stop much faster, and even reject a landing and take off much faster than any large jet, so they have more options to avoid wildlife encounters.  But yeah, a big enough animal is gonna ruin your day in a little prop plane.

Taking off though, is another matter.  Losing an engine due  to sucking in a bird or animal is a serious matter during the takeoff roll, but pilots are trained constantly for this occurance and normally it is resolved without serious incident.  But even during takeoff, not much can be done to avoid wildlife on the runway short of stopping the plane.

Answer 7

I don't think that hitting a dog would adversly affect a 747. A smaller civil aircraft might sustain substantial damage though. The 747 pilot must have been quite a dog lover to put his passengers in peril by pulling an abrupt maneuver while landing.