CHICAGO (WGN) – A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Phoenix had to return to O’Hare International Airport on Sunday morning after its landing gear struck a coyote during takeoff.
United Airlines said Flight 1727, scheduled to fly from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, took off at around 10:45 a.m., during which time it hit the coyote. A total of 167 passengers and six crew members were on board at the time of the incident.
The aircraft involved, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, safely returned to O’Hare for examination after the incident, according to officials.
United Airlines said airline personnel arranged for another aircraft to take travelers to their destination later the same afternoon.
No other information was released.
As noted by the Federal Aviation Administration, there have been about 310,000 reports of wildlife strikes involving civil aircraft in the U.S. between 1990 and 2023, per a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Birds account for the vast majority of those strikes, FAA data shows, while thousands of others have been attributed to flying mammals (specifically bats) and terrestrial animals including rabbits or deer. Coyotes, specifically, accounted for 824 of strikes between 1990 and 2022, the data indicated.
