PSA Airlines Flight 5320
Bombardier Inc CL 600 2C10 700C · Accident: wildlife encounter (non-bird) during takeoff
From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to Gulfport Biloxi International Airport (GPT)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA17CA064
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Bombardier Inc CL 600 2C10 700C
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CL-600
- 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
- N709PS
- Operator
- PSA Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NCTo Gulfport Biloxi International Airport (GPT), Gulfport, MS
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2004)
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Wildlife encounter (non-bird)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On February 15, 2017, at about 1142 eastern standard time, a PSA Airlines flight 5320, a Bombardier CRJ700, N709PS, struck a deer during takeoff from runway 36C at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, North Carolina. The airplane sustained substantial damage. There were no injuries to the 48 passengers and crew onboard. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from CLT to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport (GPT), Gulfport, Mississippi.
According to the operator, the airplane struck a deer with its right wing during the takeoff roll. The crew continued the takeoff and declared an emergency. Before returning to land, the flight crew conducted a low pass down runway 36R, for the airport rescue and firefighting (ARFF) to inspect the damage. ARFF observed damage to the right wing and reported vapor coming from it. After landing on runway 36R, the flight crew elected to stop on the taxiway due to the fuel leak, where passengers were evacuated and bused them to the terminal. Post flight examination of the wing found damage substantial damage to the leading edge slats, slat tracks, flaps, and front spar of the right wing.
Probable cause
collision with a deer during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA17CA064
- Event ID
- 20170216X44213
- Case number
- DCA17CA064
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: c15205222b7232c82d4b80366c37fd71bd51c86427110ab88b7b3aafea8f7e61; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:00:48.450Z.