After trying rubber buckshot to keep animals off the runway at the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport, airport officials will be looking for more sophisticated, or at least successful, methods.
In the past, a landing jet hit a deer, while foxes and other animals, have also been a problem. The Federal Aviation Administration has offered to help build a larger fence on the airport perimeter, and the Crested Butte News reports that the FAA is providing $80,000 to pursue a wildlife research project and wildlife control plan. Just what the research project will include was not reported.
The biggest problem so far, however, was not wildlife, but a snowplow. In early January, the snowplow was traveling 40 to 60 mph on the airport taxiway when it clipped a Continental Airlines jet with 86 passengers on board. Visibility was poor, and the snowplow operator could not see the jet.