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EUTHANIZED: Darted animal from the Gustavus herd bumps rear rotor of a tagging aircraft.
By KATIE PESZNECKER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: March 5, 2007
Last Modified: March 5, 2007 at 07:16 AM
A routine flight to tag a cow moose took a bizarre turn this weekend when the tranquilized animal charged the tail section of a hovering helicopter, collided with the rear rotor and brought down the aircraft.
The injured animal was euthanized at the scene.
The incident happened near the southeast town of Gustavus late Saturday afternoon, and baffled officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
"I have never personally seen or heard of an injury of this type, caused to an animal by an aircraft," said Doug Larsen, regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation. "It just had to be one of those quirky circumstance. Even dealing with bears and goats and moose and wolves, this is pretty unusual and truly a very unique situation."
Neither the pilot nor biologist Kevin White, who was aboard the helicopter, was injured. But Larsen said the moose was hurt badly enough -- its snout collided with the chopper's tail rotor -- that it had to be put down by White. Biologists typically use a lethal injection to euthanize moose, Larsen said.
"It was really beyond help at that point," Larsen said. "When it hit its nose, it basically chopped off the end of its nose. It was really severely injured."
