It sounds like there was a risk associated with either action, but hitting the turtle was the least risky. He made the wrong choice.
As long as the turtle was hurt...
I always tell the wife, when an animal gets before your car, try a little to brake and swerve to get around it, but just accept the fact that hitting it is far better than ending in the ditch or against a tree.
Wow. During my pilot training, the instructor would often make me do a go-around by saying, “Sorry, herd of turtles on the runway! Go around!”
I guess it could really happen.
Same as when a deer runs out in front of you on the highway at night.
Your more likely to crash, roll over and and die if you try too hard to avoid it.
Just hold on and hit it square.
How big was the turtle? Honestly a big enough would be a bad idea to run over, especially if it’s not a rough terrain plane.
So two people died and a $100,000 dollar plane destroyed because those cheap bastards refused to install less than 5000 feet of chicken wire fencing to prevent small critters from crossing the runway.
Odd that this plane story happens when more and more people are debating on TV about states that have conflicting laws about whether you have to stop for a Dem woke protestor or for a mob of violent ones trying to rock your car and pull you out to beat you to death.
One of the BLM Portland atrocities was a husband, wife and little girl who couldn’t back out after thinking a street was still open to avoid the fires in the buildings. It was newly becoming part of the A grinning, laughing mob broke their windows and terrorized them, finally pulling each out to throw onto the street. A breakaway small group of leftists started arguing and the mob let them run away. Quick report later was “police made no arrests.”
This was one of the autonomous zones. The Patrick Kimmons Autonomous Zone (PKAZ), “named after a man killed by police.” Not the other one, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).
Lot of difference between a tiny box turtle and a big mofo snapping turtle.
Any news on what spect/size they’re talking about?
Would hitting the turtle have caused a problem?
I would imagine it would.
I immediately thought tail-dragger landing to go sour from raising a wheel. Looked in the article for the type and then for a picture and sure enough.
Taildraggers are notoriously very sensitive to landing accidents they call “ground loop” i.e. deviation in ground path positive feedback leading to main gear going sideways and rolling the aircraft over. The center of mass being behind the main gear lets it kind of skid out (iirc).
Sure enough, it was a taildragger. You could have probably gotten away with raising a wheel in a tricycle gear. Probably felt the ground loop developing and tried to recover by getting airborne again, not enough room, speed, time. Just my guess.