Narrative:

I was working ground control. I was told by local 2 a deer had been spotted inside the fence running north; east of runway 35R; approximately 1;000 feet north of the approach end of runway 35R. The fence is about 250 feet east of the runway edge. Airport vehicle was out doing a pre part 139 inspection that is due this month and was driving north along runway 35R. He was told about the deer and asked us to call operations and let them know so they could shoot the deer. Airport vehicle continued north on the runway. (We later found out the airport has been trying to get this deer for almost 4 days.) I was called by another airport vehicle on the ramp and I took them to runway 35R at C1 then instructed them to call LC2. Approximately 3 minutes later I hear local control (local control) 2 tell our front line manager (flm) original airport vehicle was refusing to exit the runway and was telling him to cross second airport vehicle who said they would be in the rsa [runway safety area] east of runway 35R thereby shutting down operations. LC2 had an aircraft in position and two in the pattern; the closest one on base. LC2 was very professional and allowed the operation. He never pushed the fact the original vehicle refused an ATC instruction and never gave the phrase about a possible vehicle deviation. The flm that day also did not back up the controller or make a phone call in support. While I understand airport operations has a job to do; so do we. The controller had the deer in sight and knew he had time to clear the runway of the departure and take the other two over to local control 1 on a base leg. Recent events and new airport managment has been increasingly difficult to work with. Refusing to clear the runway is a vehicle deviation at the very least. Our management needs to support its controllers as well. I do not have faith in some of them having my back.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GFK Tower Controllers receive a call that a deer is close to the runway. Airport operations reports the deer in sight and the vehicle is permitted to get on the runway. Airport vehicle wants another airport vehicle to come to its position to remove the deer. Controller wants to use runway for departures and airport vehicle won't clear runway.

Narrative: I was working ground control. I was told by Local 2 a deer had been spotted inside the fence running North; East of runway 35R; approximately 1;000 feet North of the approach end of Runway 35R. The fence is about 250 feet East of the runway edge. Airport vehicle was out doing a pre Part 139 inspection that is due this month and was driving north along runway 35R. He was told about the deer and asked us to call operations and let them know so they could shoot the deer. Airport vehicle continued north on the runway. (We later found out the airport has been trying to get this deer for almost 4 days.) I was called by another Airport vehicle on the ramp and I took them to runway 35R at C1 then instructed them to call LC2. Approximately 3 minutes later I hear Local Control (LC) 2 tell our Front Line Manager (FLM) original airport vehicle was refusing to exit the runway and was telling him to cross second airport vehicle who said they would be in the RSA [runway safety area] East of runway 35R thereby shutting down operations. LC2 had an aircraft in position and two in the pattern; the closest one on base. LC2 was very professional and allowed the operation. He never pushed the fact the original vehicle refused an ATC instruction and never gave the phrase about a possible vehicle deviation. The FLM that day also did not back up the controller or make a phone call in support. While I understand airport operations has a job to do; so do we. The controller had the deer in sight and knew he had time to clear the runway of the departure and take the other two over to LC 1 on a base leg. Recent events and new airport managment has been increasingly difficult to work with. Refusing to clear the runway is a vehicle deviation at the very least. Our management needs to support its controllers as well. I do not have faith in some of them having my back.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.