A United Airlines flight was forced to return to its gate after striking a coyote at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Flight 1727 en route to Phoenix, Arizona was about to take off Sunday morning when its landing gear struck a coyote, a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent. As a result, the plane was forced to return to the gate and was taken out of service.
The 167 passengers and six crew members had to deplane. The airline arranged for them to take a later flight.
United Airlines did not provide The Independent information on the condition of the coyote.
This wasn’t the first time a coyote made headlines this week, CBS Chicago reports.
On Monday, a coyote got stuck in a refrigerated shelf at a local Aldi store after running into the store, according to the outlet. Chicago police responded, helping pull the animal from the shelves. The animal is now at the Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation and could be soon released into the wild.
Meanwhile, United Airlines was in the news last month after a body was found in a plane’s wheel well.
Flight UA202 arrived at the Kahului Airport the afternoon of December 24. On the ground, officials discovered a body inside the wheel well.
“Upon arrival at Kahului airport in Maui … a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on a United aircraft,” United Airlines said in a statement to CNN. “The wheel well was only accessible from outside of the aircraft.”
Hiding in a plane’s wheel well is the most common method used by stowaways, according to CNN. However, it’s often fatal, as stowaways can develop deadly hypothermia and hypoxia as the plane climbs, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Stowaways can also get crushed as the landing gear retracts.
