A United Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a rabbit got sucked into its engine.
The video depicts a ball of flame bursting from the engine of Flight 2325 soon after it departed from Denver Airport on Sunday evening.
Passengers on the Edmonton, Canada The bound flight was rerouted after hearing a 'loud bang' and experiencing 'substantial vibrations' shortly following departure; however, the plane proceeded with its ascent.
'At regular intervals, a backfire would erupt from the engine, followed by a massive fireball trailing behind,' passenger Scott Wolff recounted to ABC. Good Morning America '. Everyone on the aircraft subsequently began to panic.'
The Boeing 737 made a safe landing back at Denver Airport approximately at 8:05 pm local time.
The audio recordings from the cockpit indicated that upon touchdown, the flight crew asked for the aircraft to be checked due to reports of an engine fire. They were informed that a rabbit had been ingested by the engine.
'Push the button numbered two, that should do it,' the pilot stated.
The 153 passengers along with six crew members subsequently proceeded to Edmonton aboard a different aircraft, as stated by United to ABC. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into the incident.
The flight for UA 2325 departed from Denver Airport at 7:08 pm on Sunday, as per information provided by the tracking service FlightAware.
After a fire broke out in one of its engines, the airplane made an emergency return to Colorado’s main hub. The craft touched down without incident in Denver within the hour.
Wyatt McCurry observed the event from below at the Denver Airport, saying his 'stomach sank' when he saw the fireball burst into the sky.
"I simply figured I was about to witness a plane crash," he remembered.
United stated that they returned safely to Denver to investigate a potential wildlife strike.
The FAA released a comparable announcement, stating that the flight touched down after the crew reported hitting an animal during takeoff.
According to the FAA, wildlife collisions occur frequently, with over 20,000 such events documented across the United States last year.
Nevertheless, rabbit strike incidents seem less common, as the FAA database has recorded only four occurrences across the country, with one taking place in Denver.
The majority of animal incidents reported to the agency were related to birds.
MailOnline has reached out to the FAA and United for their input.
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