The list of animals hit by planes in Florida so far this year reads like a tragic version of The Twelve Days of Christmas: five opossums, four iguanas, three turtles, two alligators and a coyote on a runway that, luckily, narrowly missed meeting with a 737 landing in Tampa.

Other strange terrestrials have found their way into the paths of planes in recent years, including snakes, deer, foxes, armadillos, raccoons and cats as reports of wildlife strikes continue to rise in the state, according to the latest data from the Federal Aviation Administration.

It ends badly for animals when they’re hit by a plane that weighs over 100,000 pounds traveling 170 mph down a runway.

Last year, Florida plane strikes with all species reached the highest number in the FAA database’s history, which stretches back to 1990, at 1,717 reports. So far, this year’s count is 833, of which nearly all are birds — an expectation in the aviation industry.

The number of strikes with ground animals has increased since the government began tracking them. No strikes involving animals besides birds were reported in 1990. Compare that to 43 in 2021, 42 in 2022, 40 last year and 24 through August of this year, according to the latest figures.

This year’s incidents include a small private jet at the regional airport in Gainesville that hit an alligator one night while taxiing in July. The same month, a United Airlines 737 hit another alligator while taxiing at Orlando International Airport and returned to the terminal.

Airport workers found remains of green iguanas hit by planes on runways at Key West in April, and Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach in May. A dead deer and a dead armadillo were spotted on the same day in July at Tampa’s busy airport. An Allegiant passenger jet hit a gopher tortoise crawling on the runway in March at St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport.

The incident with the coyote that escaped disaster in Tampa happened in January. The coyote scampered into a nearby treeline, as the Southwest pilot aborted the landing. Another coyote wasn’t as lucky: An Allegiant jet hit one with its left gear during landing in August at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport in the Panhandle. 

Plane vs. deer

Private pilot Eric Beach joined the club when he “totally smoked a deer.” 

Beach had already made a couple flights in February 2021 from an airstrip in his neighborhood, where pilots, mechanics and flight instructors live in a community built around a love of aviation. 

Beach’s friend was working on his airplane when he asked if Beach would take one of his friends up for a quick flight.

“Well, sure. I’m not going to say no, you know? We want to expose and share aviation to everybody. That’s what we do, right?,” he said.

At dusk, the two set off on their journey.

“The sun’s just going down, so the winds are super calm and it’s going to be a really awesome flight,” he said.

The pair didn’t even make it off the ground. As they traveled down the runway, picking up speed, a deer sprinted from the right side of the track.

“This deer darted right out in front of me. I never saw it until it was too late, and we plowed right through him,” Beach said. The two men were unharmed, although the passenger was rattled.

“I mean, he might be emotionally scarred a little bit, because I think that might’ve been his first time in a small airplane,” Beach said.

The plane suffered damage. The impact ripped off the left landing gear door and curled skin on the wing. The propeller strike prompted a tear-down inspection, which Beach estimates cost around $25,000. Beach’s story is one example of why the FAA ranks deer as the No. 1 most hazardous animal for aviation in terms of damage.

Challenges for small airports

Small airports like the one where Beach flew face unique struggles in preventing wildlife strikes. They generally lack access to specialized tools and technology available to larger airports and may find it difficult to find hunters willing to take down problematic, local wildlife populations. 

Larger Florida airports continue to develop complex strategies to prevent wildlife strikes.

Wildlife strike prevention requires everyday upkeep, including pyrotechnics, shooing away flocks of birds and keeping the grass on the airfield mowed, said Sarah Brammell, director of operations at Tampa International Airport.

“We’re trying to minimize habitat wherever we can, because it’s better for both the animals and for humans if they’re not here,” she said.

Brammell said there are multiple factors contributing to the rise of strikes nationwide.

“Really, it’s come on since the Miracle on the Hudson,” she said.

Brammell was referring to the United Airlines flight in January 2009 that landed in the Hudson River in New York after colliding with a flock of geese shortly after takeoff, cripping its engines. The captain, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, saved the lives of all 155 passengers and heightened concerns about wildlife strikes. 

Even bald eagles

Increases in strikes can be explained by an increase in reporting by pilots — who are encouraged but not required by the FAA to file reports when it happens — and the revitalization of some species, such as bald eagles. 

Planes hit bald eagles four times across Florida so far this year. A Frontier passenger jet hit a bald eagle landing near dawn at Orlando International Airport in February, and an Allegiant jet destroyed an engine when it sucked an eagle inside on takeoff in April from Punta Gorda Airport in southwest Florida. A Virgin Atlantic jet landing in Orlando in April hit another eagle, but the bird survived and was taken to a wildlife sanctuary to recover.

Another factor for such strikes is increased development around airports, driving animals to the only green spaces left, on airport property.

“Where there used to be more habitat outside the airport, a lot of airports are seeing growth and development around them that’s removing some of those green spaces,” Brammell said. “And the green spaces that are left might be on the airport.”

Some airports now employ wildlife biologists and ecologists to advise them on keeping animals away from arriving and departing planes. Some animal carcasses found on runways are sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to forensically identify their species. Sometimes only a few feathers are all that remain. Discouraging a gopher tortoise from walking across a runway may require a strategy different from a softshell turtle.

“Hitting a turtle in the early days of the strike database might’ve been, ‘Boy, we have a mess on the runway.’ You know? ‘Let’s scoop it up and get it in the dumpster,’ as opposed to ‘let’s swab it, put it in a package and FedEx it to the Smithsonian,” said Ann Hodgson, who works with the volunteer group Bird Strike Committee USA on such matters.

Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers — which found a dead softshell turtle on a runway in May — has been removing vegetation that attracts birds and other wildlife and maintains fences to keep deer and other large wildlife away from runways and taxiways, spokeswoman Victoria Moreland said.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport blasts noises to scare away birds and uses spikes on structures to discourage birds from nesting, spokeswoman Arlene Satchell said.

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at julialejnar@freshtakeflorida.com. You can donate to support the students here.