Commercial aviation is incredibly safer than cars and all other modes of transportation, largely because planes are well-designed to withstand and overcome various possible situations. Collisions with birds are relatively common… but collisions with a **rabbit**? That’s rarer.
I know it’s Easter weekend, but still. A collision with a rabbit, causing an engine failure and fire… that’s a rather unusual incident.
Yet that’s exactly what happened last Sunday to a flight departing from Denver (Colorado) to Edmonton (Alberta).
Here are the details.
Collision with a rabbit
On the evening of April 13, flight UA2325 from Denver (DEN) to Edmonton (YEG) took off normally, like approximately 100% of the 100,000 commercial flights each day worldwide.
But shortly after takeoff, the pilots declared an emergency due to an engine failure: the right engine of the plane caught fire, which produced some quite striking images.
#Breaking Cabin footage of a United B-737 “landing an emergency after reportedly hitting a rabbit on departure from Denver. Video from inside the cabin showed large flames shooting from the engine”. Updates when possible. 📹@aviationbrk pic.twitter.com/aiRrHizhPS
— Air Safety #OTD by Francisco Cunha (@OnDisasters) April 16, 2025
It must have been very frightening, of course. But as always, the images give a more dramatic impression than the situation really is.
Impulsive emotional reactions are rarely the most logical regardless of the subject… but especially for travel, it’s worth remembering this.
Even when it looks terrible like this, planes are built strong. Also, pilots and crews are trained for these kinds of situations. These are rare, but most importantly, they can be controlled safely.
United Airlines flight engine catches fire after takeoff due to a rare RABBIT strike pic.twitter.com/D3Ne0SfsuN
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 16, 2025
The plane circled in a holding pattern for a while, so the pilots could complete their procedures and checklists in preparation for landing.
(By the way, I had the incredible chance to sit in the cockpit for a takeoff on an A350 in March; I’ll share my experience soon. It was so great for an AvGeek like me to see all the takeoff procedures!)
The plane landed on the same runway without incident 43 minutes after takeoff. There were no injuries among the 159 people on board.
Bird strikes are relatively frequent because, despite measures taken by airports… it remains difficult to completely control birds (which obviously have wings and can go wherever they want).
But… it was a collision with a rabbit that allegedly caused this particular engine failure!
Collisions with wildlife that don’t have wings like that are really rare. Airports are generally able to manage so there aren’t any on the grounds.
It’s unclear how the rabbit managed to be ingested into the engine (R.I.P.), but it gave some passengers a fright. More fear than harm, though, like most incidents in aviation, fortunately.
More details (airport, airline, aircraft, country)
As I told you for the first time in 8+ years in my other follow-up on the misunderstood tip to get a full row of seats without affecting anyone at all, I have ADHD, and it always makes me want to give you more information on many related themes when I talk about any subject.
I like to help you. At least when it’s a subject that I’m passionate about. Like travel, obviously.
So I’ll add the related information in a structured way after the main topic like this, if you’re interested! I want to briefly address 4 themes related to this news story to make you more knowledgeable about all this.
Airport
It happened at Denver airport, which was the 6th busiest airport in the world in 2024 with almost 2 times more passengers than Toronto. So they know what they’re doing, and it’s not a small bush airport in a remote area.
I mention this because Denver is only the 19th most populous metropolitan area in the United States (almost 2 times smaller than Toronto), and few people would think that this airport would be in this worldwide ranking.
I’ll explain why in our upcoming article on the world’s busiest airports soon, if you’re interested! Also, I’ll tell you more about the fact that Denver is the airport that is targeted by the highest amount of crazy conspiracy theories; the Illuminati have their headquarters there, lizard people live in the secret tunnels, the runways form a swastika, the giant blue horse statue with demonic eyes invokes the apocalypse, etc.
And one last unusual fact about the other airport involved, Edmonton. I don’t know if there are rabbits there, but I can tell you that there’s no risk of collision with rats! Alberta is the only place that has declared war on rats and won!
Airline
It happened to a plane belonging to United Airlines, the largest airline in the world by fleet size (the 1st to have more than 1,000 aircraft). It’s one of the 40+ partners on which you can redeem your Aeroplan points, the best airline points! It’s also the one I flew for my 13-hour business class flight for $133 instead of $4074.
Except that it really doesn’t matter, obviously. It could have happened to Air Canada or any other airline that had instructions to take off from that runway at that precise moment; it’s purely random.
United operates 47% of flights in Denver, one of its biggest hubs. So there’s a good chance that an incident in Denver would be on United, regardless of the situation!
What’s impressive is that the passengers arrived in Edmonton with only a 3-hour delay!!!
I take this opportunity to remind you of the only real disadvantage of smaller airlines (ultra low-cost or not; it’s really a question of size, not business model). Contrary to the very common and very false myth, they don’t necessarily cancel more flights. No.
But the disadvantage is that if your flight is canceled for any reason, it’s likely to take longer to be rebooked! That’s for sure! They have fewer routes, fewer aircraft, fewer employees… whereas United was able to turn around super quickly!
Especially since it happened at their hub! If it had happened on the return, departing from Edmonton, it would have been different. But it’s still generally always easier to be rebooked when you travel on major airlines!
Aircraft
It happened to a Boeing 737-800, a model that all those who are unfamiliar with aviation confuse with the 737 MAX (completely different). Anyway, it has even less relevance: engine failures like this can happen to any type of aircraft in the event of a collision.
If anything, it shows the 737 in a very good light, because the aircraft responded very well to a critical situation.
There are 10,000+ Boeing 737 aircraft flying in the world, making tens of thousands of flights each day. It objectively makes no sense to be afraid; honestly, it’s quite irrational even with the 737 MAX which had problems. But the 737 has none of the (now fixed) problems the 737 MAX had (and never had them either).
And one last unusual fact about the other airport involved, Edmonton. I don’t know if there are rabbits there, but I can tell you there’s no risk of a rat strike! Alberta is the only place that has declared war on rats and won!
Country
It happened in the U.S. With the Delta plane crash in Toronto in February, the terrible fatal collision in Washington in January, and especially the massive anti-Trump sentiment, there are people saying that flying in the United States is not safe.
There are tens of thousands of commercial flights every day in the country. Yes, accidents are unfortunate. However, the risk is infinitesimally small, just as it was before Trump.
Moreover, the risk at the border seems to worry a lot of people, too, and that’s honestly not justified if you have a Canadian passport and are going on a normal leisure trip.
In March 2025 alone, over 2 million Canadians entered the United States: if there were frequent problems, we would know! Many are blowing very few isolated incidents way out of proportion, as usual.
The U.S. has always been scared of people who seem like they might:
- Try not to leave rather than be a tourist
- Try to work in the country rather than be a tourist
Nothing new. I know; I was interrogated for an hour myself… when Obama was President! The enforcement of this might be stricter now, but that’s not a worry at all if you’re entering for a leisure trip. At all!
I could do a more detailed article on this; it will be good for me to explain to you less intensely why you’re probably wrong if you’re afraid to cross the border. You’re entitled to your opinion, but it still needs to be a well-informed one. The world would be a much better place if everyone stopped pretending that all opinions are equal, honestly.
To be clear, if you want to boycott, by all means: boycott. But the fear of the border alone is just not really a good reason to boycott.
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Summary
A collision with a rabbit caused an engine failure on a United flight from Denver to Edmonton on April 13. There were no injuries despite the images that look much worse, as always. And nobody would have talked about it if it had been birds… but a rabbit, that’s rare!
What would you like to know about the collision with a rabbit? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Cabin and plane on fire footage (photo credit: YEGWAVE)
