Back in April, a commercial flight carrying 159 people had a major scare as it took off from Denver International Airport: The United Airlines flight struck an animal, which crippled one of the plane’s engines and forced the crew to make an emergency landing.

As it turns out, the threat to aircraft from birds, rabbits and other animals is something DIA officials work hard to manage. Scott Franz, who’s an investigative reporter here at KUNC, recently got his hands on documents that show just how widespread the problem is.

Scott found that last year 878 planes had reported animal strikes while taking off or landing at DIA. And the airport killed or relocated tens of thousands of birds and other animals to limit the potential damage to aircraft.

So: How vulnerable are planes at DIA, and is there a better solution? Scott talked about his story with In The NoCo's Brad Turner.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.