Fractional Jet Captain reported a near miss with a deer on the runway during landing. Captain stated airport should be fenced in due to large deer population.
Synopsis
Fractional Jet Captain reported a near miss with a deer on the runway during landing. Captain stated airport should be fenced in due to large deer population.
Narrative
LOM airport has MANY deer. I estimate I saw 50 in the hour I spent there. The airport is surrounded by lush 1-2 ft tall grass. No fence. Flying in; I was as slow as I could be for a short field landing. As I was about to land; the copilot called out 'go around; go around' because of deer. I saw the deer and decided to land; stating; 'no; it's too late'. I firmly braked and stopped quickly; fortunately without striking deer. The standard response would have been to go around; but I felt that if I did; there would be lag in spool-up of the engines and an amount of distance traveled down the runway before getting airborne again and above the deer. Striking deer then; our only option would be to continue with the short runway. We might have had any number of problems from a deer strike; (gear damage; lost fuel from a struck wing; etc.) that we'd take with us back up in the air. I decided that hitting deer from a slow approach; and slowing speed from firm braking would be safer. I debriefed that reasoning with my copilot afterwards. He made the correct call; but I had the above reasons for deciding to land.Suggestions: I feel this airport is unsafe. I don't think it should be used by small jets with its current large population of deer. The airport needs a fence.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.