Deer On The Runway

May 4, 2009

in Animal Stories

When I would go visit my family in Arkansas, I sometimes flew little puddle jumpers to either Texarkana, El Dorado or Camden. The first time I fly to El Dorado, it was quite the experience. The lady sitting across the aisle from me was from Mexico and didn’t speak a word of English. It was easy to tell that she was not having a good time flying – she turned ghostly white and kept the barf bag handy.

As we got close to the airport in El Dorado, I began wondering where we were going to land. There was nothing but huge pine trees as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, there was a clear spot in the trees with what looked like a landing strip and a couple of buildings. I look at the runway and there were a couple of people running and waving their arms. I’m thinking – what the heck is this? Is there no communication between the cockpit and the ground? Looking closer, I saw several deer on the runway. The guys on the ground were chasing them off the runway! The pilot had to pull up and circle and the woman across the aisle from me promptly tossed her cookies – in the bag, fortunately. We landed safe and sound the second time around.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Nacho May 29, 2009 at 7:01 am

While it's definitely not the OMGWORST story on here, it is rather amusing to think about this situation. Reminds me of Bill Engvall's stand-up:

"I was heading out for a show one time and had to take a plane to get to my destination. The plane is taxiing down the runway and a deer comes out of nowhere, and we hit it with the plane.

"I was shocked… I call my wife up on the cell phone and said, 'Honey, you are NOT going to believe this, we just hit a deer with our airplane.'

"There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line, then she said, 'Oh my god, were you on the ground?'

"I said, 'Nope, Santa was taking one last ride.' Here’s your sign!"

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Anonymous May 29, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Nacho, you read my mind. I thought of the exact same thing.

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Raymond Thompson July 9, 2009 at 6:24 pm

I am actually from El Dorado and can say that the airport is out in the middle of no where really nothing really flies into it. I would have drove lol

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Been There October 30, 2009 at 10:57 am

I have flown from Jonesboro to Dallas many times and have had this happen before (they stop in El Dorado to re-fuel). I left the plane to use the restroom in El Dorado while they gassed it up. I laughed out loud when they made me wait to reboard because the fuel truck was still on the tarmac (no longer fueling the plane), and I was the only passenger on the plane and the pilots were hanging out next to the plane's boarding stairs (about 20 feet away from where I was standing).

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