Deer a part of life at Campbell Airport

At least six deer grazed and scampered Monday afternoon near the entrance to Campbell Airport in unincorporated Lake County near Round Lake's Madrona Village subdivision.

But as common as deer are to the area, the Sunday night accident when a pilot struck one of the animals was a first for Campbell operator Jim Tahaney in his 43 years working at the private strip.

John Olson, 52, who lives in an unincorporated area near Mundelein, hit the deer on the runway while attempting to land. He pulled up just before reaching the ground and later made an emergency touchdown with damaged landing gear at Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling.

Pilots must know how to contend with deer if they land their small planes at Campbell, Tahaney said. There are no plans to install fencing or other measures in an effort to keep animals away from the planes, he said.

"They'll jump a 6-, 8-foot fence," Tahaney said of the deer. "They're all over O'Hare (International Airport). All airports run into problems."

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said Campbell doesn't receive federal money, so it's not required to follow certain rules about wildlife and other matters that apply to airports that take the cash.

One section of the FAA's regulations on wildlife hazard management requires identification and location of features on or near an airport that attract animals.

Unlike Campbell, airports in Wheeling, Schaumburg and Lake in the Hills all use fences to keep deer off their runways.

In Schaumburg, wire grids also keep geese off ponds and a person with an air horn conducts daily checks to scare off other wildlife, said Bob Rubenstein, a Schaumburg transportation analyst.

Lake in the Hills airport installed a fence to keep the deer off its runways in 2003, said Fred Mullard, the Lake in the Hills public works director and airport manager. The airport also put large rocks in front of the fence so deer can't run and jump over it, Mullard said.

At Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, 8-foot fences keep deer off the runways for the most part, said manager Dennis Rouleau.

"Being so close to a forest preserve, it's something we take very seriously," Rouleau said.