A passenger aircraft bound to New York has been forced to make a U-turn after it struck a coyote during takeoff.
JetBlue Flight 1129 hit the animal jetting off from Rhode Island TF Green International Airport on Tuesday morning, according to the FAA.
The plane initially continued its climb toward the Big Apple but was forced to loop back about 15 minutes later.
'We were up in the air for 10 to 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden the captain came on,' Erin Drozda, a passenger on the flight, told WPRI.
'[They] said, "This is the flight crew. If anyone heard that thud, we hit a coyote, and we are now on our way back to Providence,"' she added.
'We thought it was a joke at first,' Drozda recalled. 'You don't ever hear that.'
Drozda added that emergency crews were waiting on the Tarmac when the flight returned to Rhode Island.
Crews inspected the front of the aircraft for damage, then asked passengers to deplane so a full inspection could be completed, she said.
The aircraft was bound to New York and forced to make a U-turn. Police are shown on the scene
Emergency crews are seen on the Tarmac after a JetBlue flight turned around back to Rhode Island
After the plane returned to TF Green Airport, emergency crew inspected the nose of the plane and later removed all passengers
'We got off the plane and stayed inside for about another half hour or so, and then they told us that everything was OK, and we were able to get back on the plane.'
The aircraft took off at 6.16 am, and U-turned back to TF Green at 6.40am, according to FlightAware data.
Nearly two hours later, the flight took off again shortly after 8.30am and landed at John F Kennedy International Airport just after 9am.
The coyote collision did not impact other flights, a TF Green Airport spokesperson told CBS News.
A JetBlue spokesperson sad the plane turned around after reports a coyote had been struck, acting 'out of an abundance of caution.'
The airline confirmed the flight landed safely with no issues or injuries.
Drozda said the delay caused her and her wife to miss their connecting flight to Costa Rica, though they managed to rebook for Wednesday, the outlet reported.
It comes after the FAA issued a ground stop for all JetBlue flights on March 10, after the airline requested a nationwide halt, believed to be over IT failures at the carrier.
The disruptions adds to mounting travel chaos nationwide
JetBlue scrambled to fix the technical problems and avoid cascading delays across US airports.
The halt was lifted about an hour later that day, and flights resumed as normal.
The disruptions adds to mounting travel chaos nationwide, with TSA lines stretching up to four hours in recent days as officials blamed a Department of Homeland Security government shutdown for staffing shortages.
Daily Mail reached out to the FAA, TF Green Airport, and JetBlue for additional comment.