SEA03LA130 · Cessna T210M
Cessna T210M · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From Seeley Lake Airport (23S) to Schafer USFS Airport (8U2)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA130
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna T210M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N761QN
- Operator
- Wilcox, Andrew R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seeley Lake Airport (23S), Seeley Lake, MTTo Schafer USFS Airport (8U2), Schafer USFS, MT
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · aborted
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Object › Animal(s)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the Cessna T210M arrived overhead the 3,200-foot long turf USFS mountain airstrip and conducted an overflight verifying that the runway was clear of objects and wildlife. He then commenced an approach which he reported was "a little long but manageable." After touchdown, and while rolling at 45 knots, the pilot observed a deer enter the runway environment from the right. As he was concerned that the deer would cross in front of the aircraft before the aircraft's speed could be adequately reduced, he applied full power and aborted the landing. The pilot and three passengers felt a "thump" and the pilot continued the climb out leaving the gear extended diverting to Missoula, Montana. The most recent Airport Master Record (FAA Form 5010-1) contained an advisory in the remarks section regarding wildlife on the runway.
Probable cause
The unexpected transit of a deer across the runway which impacted the aircraft during the pilot's aborted landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA130
- Event ID
- 20030714X01100
- Case number
- SEA03LA130
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2a23669f5f9c3705f274b98c6c091166d5134c77ad24eaa8a47b794defe53ed1; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:03:25.807Z.