United Airlines flight 2325 suffered an unusual wildlife strike on Sunday shortly after the Boeing 737-800 departed from Denver. The plane, which was carrying 153 passengers and six crew, hit a rabbit.
The Edmonton, Alberta-bound flight took off from runway 34L and the airline reported a possible rabbit strike to the plane’s right-hand CFM56 engine. Passengers heard a loud explosion followed by significant vibrations. Large flames were seen shooting from the right engine, causing panic inside the cabin. One witness explains,
There was a loud bang and a significant vibration in the plane. We proceeded to still climb. Every few moments, there was a backfire coming from the engine, a giant fireball behind it. Everybody in the plane then started to panic.
Pilots declared a Mayday emergency, informed controllers that they had lost the right-hand engine and were managing an engine fire near the wing. The aircraft entered a holding pattern, allowing the flight crew time to run through emergency checklists. Approximately 40 minutes after departure, the aircraft safely landed back at Denver International Airport on runway 34L. Emergency responders were on standby, but no one was injured.
A United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Denver after an engine fire that was reportedly caused by a rabbit strike.pic.twitter.com/8YSJJkEJ5X
— T_CAS videos (@tecas2000) April 16, 2025
The aircraft returned to the gate, and passengers were moved to another Boeing 737-800, arriving in Edmonton about 3 hours late.
To be sure, planes like this can fly with a single engine. Nonetheless, I’ve been on a Boeing 737-800 that struck a bird on takeoff, ingesting it into an engine, and having to return back to origin. It was frightening. You could hear a loud bang, the engine powered down and the captain came on letting us know we’d be turning around. The entire cabin was silent, and you’ve never seen a plane get such a direct routing into a major hub before. We landed and were surrounded by emergency vehicles. There was a visual inspection done of the aircraft, before we were allowed to taxi back under our own power.
Bird strikes are relatively common. They fly in the path of aircraft. Rabbit strikes aren’t so common because rabbits do not fly.
The only other known incident that this 27-year old former Continental 737 has had was coincidentally similar, a bird strike on departure from San Francisco. That time it was a turkey vulture.