Dramatic video shows the fiery moments after a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 hit an animal on takeoff from Denver International Airport on Sunday.
“Every once in a while a little burst of plane (is) coming out the right engine,” air traffic control warned the pilots, as heard on audio captured by the website LiveATC.net.
“Yeah, affirm, we think we lost our right motor,” the pilot responded.
United flight 2325 took off Sunday from Denver going to Edmonton, Canada, with 153 passengers and six crew members onboard.
The crew reported striking an animal while taking off, the FAA said in a statement. They did not specify the animal, however rabbits were reported on the runway at the time of the incident.
“Use caution for rabbit activity,” the control tower warned several pilots. “A rabbit was reported… heading towards your runway.,”
“We might have ran them over,” a different United pilot radioed the tower.
“We’re bigger than them, though,” a Frontier pilot joked.
But it was no joke for United 2325.
“We are dealing with getting word there is fire on our wing,” the pilot of United 2325 said after declaring an emergency and announcing plans to circle and return to the airport.
The fire trucks responded as a standard protocol, Denver Airport Public Information Officer Keylen Villagrana told CNN.
“I just want to make sure they have the emergency gear rolled out for us,” the pilot told the air traffic controllers. “If you guys could check out the right-side flaps, wheel area, all of that good stuff and let us know if there is a fire.”
The plane eventually taxied to the gate and passengers boarded a new plane to fly to Edmonton.
Aircraft hit wildlife at Denver International Airport more than 800 times last year, according to data from the FAA’s Wildlife Strike Database. Most of the collisions were birds, including bald eagles, owls larks and mallards, but some of the strikes included prairie dogs, bats, coyotes and rabbits.
CNN’s Hanna Park and Pete Muntean contributed to this report.
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