- An Aer Lingus plane had to turn back shortly after taking off from Dublin Airport on Thursday morning after it hit a hare on the runway during takeoff.
- The flight, bound for the UK, landed safely and was inspected, Stobart Air, the airline operating the plane, told Business Insider. The flight took off again shortly after.
- Planes frequently hit animals, typically birds, but it can be a risky situation that has the potential to cause engine failure, which could bring down the plane.
- Dublin Airport has a longstanding problem with hares and birds, which it says are sometimes "ingested directly into an aircraft engine."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
An Aer Lingus plane was forced to turn around and land back in Dublin Airport after it hit a hare on takeoff.
Flight EI3390, which was being operated by Irish regional airline Stobart Air, was due to fly to Leeds Bradford Airport in the UK on Thursday morning.
But the plane hit a hare on the runway, prompting it to turn back and land just after takeoff.
Stobart Air told Business Insider in a statement that the plane hit an animal and was inspected after landing, and operated as normal shortly after.
"We can confirm that flight EI3390 operated by Stobart Air from Dublin Airport to Leeds Bradford Airport returned to Dublin shortly after take-off as a precautionary measure due to an animal strike on the runway.
"The aircraft landed normally and following an inspection, flight EI3390 operated to Leeds Bradford a short time later. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our passengers and thank them for their patience."
A spokeswoman for Stobart Air also confirmed to Business Insider that the animal was a hare - a large animal in the same family as the rabbit.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane completed a loop in the air, landing back in Dublin airport more than 30 minutes after takeoff.
Here is its path:
And here is the flight's usual route:
Animal strikes are common for planes, but the vast majority those tend to involve birds. Such strikes can, in severe cases, cause engine failure and bring down planes.
In the US, for example, planes struck birds more than 40 times a day in 2019, a USA Today analysis of federal statistics found.
Birds and hares have long created problems for airlines at Dublin Airport. The Dublin Airport Authority described animal strikes as "high-risk events" that can bring down planes in a 2018 report, and said there were 105 collisions involving hares over the previous three years.
It said the vast majority of these involved hares being "ingested directly into an aircraft engine." In one case six hares were sucked into the engines at once, Irish news website Dublin Live reported.