So this is a bit of a delayed post, but sitting on the end of the runway Thursday afternoon heard about a fox on the runway over channel 9. A pilot reported it, then the tower told and AA MD80 to go-around for "debris on runway" so I got to look out the window and see them do a go-around from about 10 feet over the ground at the rear wheels. Wonder what happened with the fox as we were leaving on the other runway and the channel changed.

Also, saw a Southwest plane land at O'hare, and hear two different Southwest flight numbers on the TOWER or GROUND radio (not Chicago Center) over channel 9. Was wondering what was going on with that?

I've been at ORD aboard plans and seen foxes running around, sometimes in the moments before I've heard about them on channel 9. One would think there would be some way to get rid of them before one gets sucked into an engine...

A .22 works wonders, though I couldn't comment on the TSA allowing someone to fox hunt on the runways, not to mention the FAA.

I was piloting a GA aircraft to Avalon (Santa Catalina Island) with a fuel stop in Torrance, California last year. After refueling in the early morning, there wasn't any traffic so we pretty much were cleared for take off way before reaching the hold-short line. However, just prior to the hold-short line, I hit the brakes because a fox (I'm pretty sure it was a fox or coyote. It definitely wasn't a bobcat or a mountain lion.) decided to stroll onto the runway and sit itself down, smack dab on the numbers... proceeding to stratch itself, haha! I called tower and said.... errrr, negative... there's an animal scratching itself on the numbers, cancel take-off, over... The guy in the tower was laughing pretty hard and asked me to report back when the animal is clear of the runway.

I also saw a southwest 737 landing at ORD around 1:30PM on Thursday. I couldn't figure out why it was there and couldn't find anything on flightaware.com

Glad to read I'm not going crazy and someone else saw it!

-Ualisthebst

Dang. I was hoping this was the fox.

That's got to be the one I saw, we had a 1:20 PM gate departure, saw it while sitting down by the international terminal waiting to takeoff on 22L, it landed on 27L just before we left. Would have been right at about 1:30. I think he may have been the last one in before the fox.

Oh, that was just the plane that brought the Southwest execs in to do the final negotiating before Southwest buys out UA.

Oh, the image!

You've got me picturing something like a racing greyhound with a number on it's side sitting there scratching the number!

Please continue to follow in the Chicao forum, since not really UA-specific. Thanks.

cblaisd
Moderator, United

A bomb threat closed down Midway Thursday. Southwest must have diverted. They found a note on a WN plane coming in from SEA.

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...l=chi-news-hed

Steve