Short Final: Slow-Moving Traffic

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, December 24, 2024 at 03:09 PM ET

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Credit: Wikipedia, Peterwchen

Key Takeaways:

An aircraft departure from Runway 04 at Orange County Airport was aborted due to a groundhog slowly crossing the runway.
The incident prompted humorous radio chatter among other pilots on the frequency, including jokes about the groundhog's clearance.

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From IFR Magazine reader Daniel Spitzer:

I heard the following at Orange County Airport in New York:

Instructor: “Diamond taking Runway 04 for departure,” followed immediately by ”Diamond aborting, groundhog crossing the runway veeeerrrrry sloooooowly.”

Wise guy on frequency: “Did the groundhog call Ground for clearance?” followed immediately by ”Well, groundhogs don’t have a lot of ground clearance, anyway.”