A plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a rabbit snuck into an engine while it was on the ground causing the engine to catch fire mid-flight.

Footage showed flames leaping from the right side engine of the United Airlines flight which took off from Denver, Colorado, and was scheduled to land in Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

Pilots can be heard referring to a “rabbit strike”. The term “bird strike” is often used when a bird flies into the engine of a plane in-flight.

The Boeing 737 returned to Denver and made an emergency landing after 75 minutes in the air.

Footage shot on board showed huge flames from the right engine licking the right wing. At one point pilots feared the blaze had damaged the landing gear.