Aside from birds, which animals are most often struck by planes?

(NEXSTAR) – Wildlife strikes affecting planes in the U.S. (and among U.

S.-registered aircraft globally) have become a “growing concern” in the aircraft industry, with reports increasing from just a few thousand per year in the early ‘90s to just under 20,000 in 2023 alone, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.The FAA, while acknowledging that increasing reports of wildlife strikes are partially due to larger bird populations, busier flight schedules, and quieter aircraft, stresses that these incidents can still pose a risk to planes, crews, and passengers.



“Globally, wildlife strikes with civilian and military aircraft combined have killed more than 491 people and destroyed over 350 aircraft from 1988- 2023,” the FAA and the USDA wrote in their latest report on wildlife strikes. “Specific to the USA, wildlife strikes with civilian and military aircraft have killed 76 people and destroyed 126 aircraft from 1988-2023.”A Delta Air Lines aircraft is seen on final approach at John F.

Kennedy International Airport in New York on Nov. 14, 2019. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Efforts to mitigate these outcomes — by managing or deterring local wildlife populations — are largely responsible for fewer reports of serious damage in recent decades.

But strikes will always pose a potential danger to flight operations.Delta aircraft carrying 282 passengers catches fire at Orlando airport, video showsJust this month, for instance, an aircraft that departed from the Denver International Airport was forced to return after losing an engine — an issue believed to have been caused after striking a rabbit on the runway.“What an incredibly rare circumstance,” Steve Cowell, an aviation safety expert and longtime pilot, told Nexstar’s KDVR.

“You’re dealing with an airport that has 695,000 operations a year, and we have one rabbit strike.”The FAA’s Wildlife Strike Database also shows about 20 reports of strikes in 2025 so far, with most involving birds but one concerning a coyote. Several of this year’s strikes have also resulted in “serious” damage to the aircraft, the database indicates.

Officials investigating the crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216, which occurred in South Korea in December 2024, also confirmed evidence of a bird strike before the plane attempted a failed emergency landing which killed all but two of the 181 people on the aircraft. (An investigation into the crash is ongoing.)In the U.

S., birds remain the most frequently struck animal, accounting for about 95% of strike reports in 2023. (Large birds, like turkey vultures, geese, hawks and even bald eagles, have historically been among the most dangerous, in terms of damage or human fatalities, the FAA says.

) The most devastating bird strike in U.S. history occurred in 1960, before the FAA began maintaining its database: On Oct.

4, 1960, Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crashed into the Boston Harbor shortly after takeoff from Logan Airport, having struck a flock of European starlings. Of the 72 people on board, 62 were killed.‘Gut-wrenching’: 152 dogs rescued from ‘extremely poor’ conditions in Utah homeAside from birds, hundreds of other types of animals are struck annually, in incidents that rarely cause human injury or death.

Between 1990 and 2023, civilian aircraft operating in the U.S. have struck thousands of animals categorized as terrestrial mammals or flying mammals — the former group including everything from rabbits to dogs to deer, while the latter group simply includes dozens of species of bats.

Specifically, there were 6,014 reports of wildlife strikes involving terrestrial mammals between 1990 and 2023, and 5,140 reports of wildlife strikes involving bats.Of the terrestrial strikes affecting civilian aircraft, 470 were reported to have caused “substantial” damage to the plane — mostly involving deer or coyotes on the runway — with only one fatality reported after a deer strike. (In January, a United flight was also forced to return to O'Hare after striking a coyote during takeoff.

) Meanwhile, only five instances of “substantial” damage to aircraft were reported after bat strikes in the last 30-plus years, all of which were “caused by megabats at foreign airports,” the FAA said.It’s also worth noting that, over the last decade, wildlife strikes involving bats have overtaken those involving terrestrial mammals, with 608 bat strikes reported in 2023 compared to only 319 terrestrial mammal strikes.Reptiles are also responsible for wildlife strikes in the U.

S., though much less frequently: Only 87 were struck in 2019 — the most ever reported in a single year. (Turtle and snake species were the most frequently struck, according to figures obtained between 1990 and 2023.

)A program to deter birds from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2019 used a stuffed coyote in an effort to frighten away any flocks gathering near the runways. (Judy Griesedieck/Star Tribune via Getty Images)U.

S. airports continue to maintain mitigation programs to reduce the risk of wildlife strikes (many of which are detailed by the FAA), and they appear to be making progress. Despite birds increasingly adapting to urban environments and quieter jet engines, the percentage of reported strikes causing damage had fallen from 18% in 1995 to 4% in 2023.

Reporting, too, is a critical component in strengthening mitigation efforts, allowing engineers to improve airport designs or fabricate sturdier plane parts, the FAA explains. Reporting also helps environmental officials understand and deter the local animal populations.“When reports are filed, it is important that relevant information be provided whenever possible regarding species identification, number of wildlife struck, time and height of strike, phase of flight, and damage to aircraft components,” the FAA wrote in its wildlife strike report.

“A problem that is not well defined cannot be properly managed.”.