An airplane made an emergency landing Tuesday at Lancaster Airport after striking a deer during takeoff from a suburban Philadelphia airport.

Related: 12 accidents at Lancaster Airport since 2005

The pilot, Andrew Robinson, was able to land the plane at 8:35 a.m. without the use of the aircraft's landing gear, a portion of which fell off when it hit the deer.

Robinson and his three passengers were not injured. The deer was killed.

When they hit the deer, "they knew they had a serious problem," Lancaster Airport director David Eberly said.

Eberly said Robinson flew to Lancaster Airport because he knew it had a rescue truck and emergency crews.

Firefighters and ambulances responded around 7:45 a.m. in advance of the landing.

Robinson had flown the Beechcraft BE58 from Lancaster to Wings Field in Blue Bell in Montgomery County to take three passengers to Pittsburgh for business, according to Matt Kauffman, who owns Aero-Tech Services Inc.

Aero-Tech, with locations at Lancaster and Smoketown airports, owns the aircraft. It offers charter flights, flight training and other services.

Kauffman said Robinson called him from the plane, and they discussed what actions to take.

"He definitely did a good job," Kauffman said of Robinson, who is listed as a charter pilot for Aero-Tech at the company's website. "He did as he was and is trained to."

Lancaster Airport's tower crew and the aircraft's mechanics had time to prepare for the plane's arrival and review its manuals to see what might be done, according to Eberly and Kauffman.

The decision was eventually made to land the plane on its underside.

"The plane landed right on the numbers," Eberly said.

The plane had some minor damage to its underside and propellers, and Kauffman didn't immediately have a damage estimate. He said the plane would be able to be repaired.

The runway was not damaged, Eberly said.

Kauffman said he was driving to Blue Bell to retrieve the landing gear. Wings Field is about 55 miles east of the Lancaster Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating, and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause of the accident.

Tuesday's emergency landing at Lancaster Airport was the second there in less than six weeks.

On Sept. 16, a Cessna P210 carrying a flight instructor and student "was substantially damaged following collapse of the main landing gear during landing," according to a preliminary investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

No one was injured.

The airport has about 100,000 takeoffs and landings yearly, Eberly said.

Staff writers Ryan Robinson and Lindsey Blest contributed to this report.