United Plane Strikes Coyote During Takeoff at O’Hare Airport

O’HARE: So, a United Airlines plane had a bit of a wild encounter during takeoff. It hit a coyote and had to turn back to O’Hare for a check-up. This happened on Sunday morning, around 10:45 a.m. The flight was headed to Phoenix when the landing gear made contact with the animal.

The plane was a Boeing 737 MAX 9, carrying 167 passengers and six crew members. After the incident, another plane was arranged to take everyone to Phoenix later that day. The FAA is looking into what happened, but they haven’t said anything about the coyote’s fate.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the only coyote sighting in Chicago that week. Just a day later, police had to deal with a coyote that got stuck in an Aldi store in Humboldt Park. There’s a funny video of officers trying to catch it with a broom and dustpan. They even pulled the coyote out of the fridge, but it jumped right back in!

Animal Care and Control eventually got the coyote out safely, and it was taken to Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation. They’ve dealt with coyotes before, including one that was found in a Quiznos back in 2007.

On top of all this, Chicago police are also looking into a separate incident where three teenagers stomped a coyote to death in Mount Greenwood. With coyote mating season coming up in February, they might be getting a little bolder. An expert mentioned that their hormone levels spike in winter, which could explain some of these encounters.