‘We heard a thud’: Plane hits coyote during takeoff at Rhode Island airport

WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) – Erin Drozda and her wife are supposed to be in Costa Rica, but their travel plans got interrupted by a coyote.

“We heard a thud, and then after the thud, we still took off. We were up in the air for 10 to 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden the captain came on and 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,'” Drozda told Nexstar’s WPRI.

“We thought it was a joke at first,” she continued. “You don’t ever hear that.”

Drozda was on JetBlue flight 1129 out of T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island when the collision happened Tuesday morning.

“As soon as we landed, we could see the fire department and all of the emergency crews on the runway waiting for us,” Drozda recalled.

Drozda said they sat on the runway while crews checked the nose of the plane to make sure there was no damage. A short time later, all of the passengers had to deplane so they could do a full inspection.

“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,” she said.

The flight was originally supposed to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 7:10 a.m. EDT, but because of the delay, they didn’t get there until after 9 a.m. EDT.

Drozda and her wife ended up missing their flight to Costa Rica as a result, but they were able to book a new flight for Wednesday.

No injuries were reported, and the incident did not impact any other flights.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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