United Airlines flight sees engine fire after takeoff due to apparent rabbit strike
Scott Olson/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A United Airlines flight experienced an engine fire shortly after takeoff that was apparently caused by a rare rabbit strike.
United Flight 2325 had departed Denver International Airport en route to Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday when the incident occurred.
LiveATC audio documents the flight crew asking that the plane be inspected for an engine fire and being told that it was a rabbit that apparently got sucked into an engine.
“Rabbit through the number 2, that’ll do it,” the pilot responded.
The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 153 passengers and six crew members.
“There was a loud bang, and a significant vibration in the plane,” passenger Scott Wolff told “Good Morning America.”
The plane proceeded to climb, Wolff said.
“Every few moments there was a backfire coming from the engine, a giant fireball behind it,” he said. “Everyone in the plane then started to panic.”
Wyatt McCurry saw the flames from the ground at the Denver airport.
“My stomach dropped and I just thought, ‘I’m going to see a plane go down,'” he told “Good Morning America.”
The flight safely headed back to Denver.
“Our flight from Denver to Edmonton (UA2325) returned safely to Denver to address a possible wildlife strike,” United said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane returned around 8:05 p.m. local time on Sunday “after the crew reported striking an animal while departing.”
The passengers continued to Edmonton on a new aircraft, the airline said.
The FAA is investigating.
In general, wildlife strikes are fairly common, with the FAA reporting more than 20,000 in the United States last year.
Among those, there were only four rabbit strikes reported, including one at the Denver International Airport, according to the FAA. The vast majority are bird strikes.
(BALTIMORE) — A federal judge is defending her decision to order the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a notorious El Salvador prison by Monday and has denied the government’s request to stay her order while it appeals her decision.
In a new court filing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis called the government’s decision to send the 29-year-old Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s CECOT prison a “grievous error.”
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted in a sworn declaration on March 31 that an “administrative error” led to Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, being sent to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring the government from deporting him to his home country.
“As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador – let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote in the court document, filed Sunday.
In 2019, an immigration judge issued a withholding of removal order for Abrego Garcia, prohibiting the government from sending him back to his home country because he feared persecution there from gangs.
Judge Xinis argued that Abrego Garcia’s placement in the El Salvadorian mega-jail despite the “risk of harm shocks the conscience.”
“Defendants have forcibly put him in a facility that intentionally mixes rival gang members without any regard for protecting the detainees from ‘harm at the hands of the gangs,'” the judge wrote.
“Defendants have claimed – without any evidence – that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and then housed him among the chief rival gang, Barrio 18. Not to mention that Barrio 18 is the very gang whose years-long persecution of Abrego Garcia resulted in his withholding from removal to El Salvador,” Xinis further wrote.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have maintained that he is neither a member of nor has any affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang. They also argue that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”
In Sunday’s filing, Xinis wrote that the government has not produced any evidence to suggest they cannot secure Abrego Garcia’s return and said that the court retains jurisdiction in the case because Abrego Garcia challenges his removal to El Salvador, “not the fact of confinement.”
“They do indeed cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person – migrant and U.S. citizen alike – to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the ‘custodian,’ and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction,” Xinis wrote.
“As a practical matter, the facts say otherwise,” Xinis added.
Citing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s own words from a video posted March 26 on X that the CECOT prison is “one of the tools in our toolkits that we will use,” Xinis said the record reflects that the defendants have “outsourced part of the U.S. prison system.”
“Just as in any other contract facility, Defendants can and do maintain the power to secure and transport their detainees, Abrego Garcia included,” Xinis wrote.
Xinis also included some of the arguments made by Erez Reuveni, the U.S. Department of Justice attorney who argued on behalf of the government on Friday in a lawsuit brought by Garcia’s family. Reuveni was placed on administrative leave by the DOJ over what the department alleged was a “failure to zealously advocate” for the government’s interests during the hearing.
“As their counsel suggested at the hearing, this is not about Defendants’ inability to return Abrego Garcia, but their lack of desire,” Xinis wrote.
During Friday’s hearing, Xinis asked Reuveni, “Can we talk about, then, just very practically, why can’t the United States get Mr. Abrego Garcia back?”
“Your Honor, I will say, for the Court’s awareness, that when this case landed on my desk, the first thing I did was ask my clients that very question. I’ve not received, to date, an answer that I find satisfactory,” Reuveni responded.
Xinis claimed in Sunday’s filing that, while the legal basis for the Trump administration’s decision to deport over 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador “remains disturbingly unclear,” there is no legal grounds for Abrego Garcia to be among them.
“Nor does any evidence suggest that Abrego Garcia is being held in CECOT at the behest of Salvadoran authorities to answer for crimes in that country. Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless,” Xinis wrote.
On Saturday, the Trump administration filed an emergency motion to stay Judge Xinis’ order. The appellate court has given Abrego Garcia’s legal team until 2 p.m. Sunday to respond.
In March, Abrego Garcia was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed,” according to his attorneys. After being detained over alleged gang affiliations, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas. He was then sent to El Salvador on March 15, according to a complaint his lawyers filed last month in a U.S. District Court in Maryland.
During a news conference on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Vasquez Sura, demanded that the Trump administration return her husband to the United States.
“If I had all the money in the world, I would spend it all just to buy one thing: a phone call to hear Kilmar’s voice again,” Vasquez Sura said. “Kilmar, if you can hear me, I miss you so much, and I’m doing the best to fight for you and our children.”
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione violated the “special treatment” he was afforded for his last court appearance when handwritten notes were concealed inside a pair of argyle socks he was allowed to wear, New York City prosecutors said Wednesday in a new court filing.
Mangione, who is accused of gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, was given special accommodations for his “fashion needs” when he was allowed to change out of his jail-issued clothing before his Feb. 21 court appearance, according to the filing.
The defense team gave a court officer a bag of clothes, which included a new pair of argyle socks wrapped around cardboard, the filing said.
“Secreted in the cardboard were two personal heart-shaped notes, one addressed to an unknown person named ‘Joan’ and the other to Luigi stating in part ‘know there are thousands of people wishing you luck,'” the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
“In spite of this, the defendant was permitted to wear the argyle socks, which he first changed into and later changed out of because he felt that ‘they did not look good,'” prosecutors said.
Mangione ended up appearing sock-less at the court appearance, with shackles around his ankles.
“Fortunately, the items smuggled were handwritten notes and not contraband capable of harming the transporting officers,” prosecutors noted.
The sartorial detail was included in a filing that responded to defense accusations that prosecutors withheld grand jury witness testimony and copies of electronic devices seized upon Mangione’s arrest, in violation of discovery obligations.
Prosecutors conceded they have not provided the testimony of civilian witnesses before the grand jury because they “constituted a fraction of the testimony before the Grand Jury,” comprising four of the 23 witnesses called. Otherwise, the DA’s office said there have been ample discovery disclosures to the defense.
Prosecutors also said in Wednesday’s court filing that Mangione does not need his own “specially formulated laptop” in jail because he “fails to show a necessity” to receive one.
Mangione’s attorneys asked that he be provided with a laptop “modified to the detention center’s regulations” so he can view videos, photos and other evidence.
“Without the laptop, which allows Mr. Mangione to review discovery outside the presence of counsel, there are not enough visiting hours that would allow the defense to view all discovery with the defendant (including thousands of hours of video) and also meet the Court’s current motion schedule,” the defense said.
Few inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are given laptops.
Prosecutors said Mangione “has ample access to desktop computers” that he can use to review evidence, conduct legal research, send emails and draft motions.
“Ironically, the defense repeats at every opportunity that defendant is being treated differently than other defendants similarly situated. Yet, that’s precisely what the defense seeks — special treatment for defendant, without circumstances that warrant it,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said.
On Dec. 4, Mangione allegedly shot and killed Thompson in a premeditated attack outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan as the CEO headed to an investors conference.
According to a newly disclosed court document, the backpack Mangione was carrying when he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the murder was full of items that could suggest he intended to remain on the run and, possibly, kill again.
The backpack had a gun, a Glock magazine, 9 mm cartridges and a silencer, along with a knife, phone charger, duct tape, passport, zip ties, clothes, a computer and handwritten notes, the automatic discovery form said.
Authorities also found receipts for items purchased at a CVS and for registration at a New York City hostel under the name Mark Rosario, which matches the name on a fake New Jersey driver’s license Mangione allegedly carried.
Prosecutors extracted data from devices linked to Mangione, including a Motorola cellphone he allegedly dropped while fleeing, the document said.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges.
He has not yet entered a plea to federal charges. One of the federal charges, murder through use of a firearm, makes Mangione eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
(WASHINGTON) — A small nodule was found in former President Joe Biden’s prostate after “a routine physical exam,” a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday.
“In a routine physical exam a small nodule was found in the prostate which necessitated further evaluation,” a spokesperson told ABC News.
A “small nodule” can mean a wide range of things and will require further testing to understand the underlying cause. It is too early to say if it is a benign lump caused by inflammation or something more serious.
In February 2023 during his presidency, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest that was cancerous and, before entering office, Biden had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery.
“As expected, the biopsy confirmed that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma,” White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said at the time. “All cancerous tissue was successfully removed. … No further treatment is required.”
“Basal cell carcinoma lesions do not tend to ‘spread’ or metastasize, as some more serious skin cancers such as melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma are known to do,” O’Connor explained. “They do, however, have the potential to increase in size, resulting in a more significant issue as well as increased challenges for surgical removal.”
O’Connor said the “site of the biopsy has healed nicely and the President will continue dermatologic surveillance as part of his ongoing comprehensive healthcare.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
