Plane strikes deer at airport

SANDPOINT — A pilot and passenger escaped injury Monday after the plane they were in collided with a deer at Sandpoint Airport.

Local pilot Jan Lee said he and his wife were in the process of taking off when a buck emerged from the grass separating the runway and taxiway.

“He just popped up, hit our right wing tip and kind of spun us around. We were just getting into the air,” said Lee.

Lee’s single-prop plane, an Alon Aircoupe, slammed into a chain-link fence. The couple was able to open the aircraft’s canopy and walk away from the wreck.

The collision occurred at about 9:45 p.m.

At the moment of impact, Lee said he wasn’t entirely sure what his plane hit.

“Apparently, he was bedded down in there. We never saw him, literally. I didn’t know what hit the plane, but I knew it was something big,” he said.

The crash totaled Lee’s plane. The buck fared no better.

“The police said they found the antlers 50 feet from the impact site and then another 50 feet they found the head, and then 300 or 400 feet they found the carcass. So we carried him on the wing for a long ways,” said Lee.

Despite the collision, Lee considers the airport a safe facility.

Lee had a sense of humor about the episode and even got some good-natured ribbing from a federal inspector who called him to inquire about the mishap. After confirming it was Lee who was involved, the official quipped, “We understand you’ve been hunting deer without a license.”