Words You Never Want to Hear While Flying in an Airplane.

Pilot on intercom: "Uh, folks, I'm going to have the flight crew instruct you guys on how prepare for an emergency landing. This is just an extreme precaution. It seems we hit a coyote during our take off from Denver...All of our systems are indicating everything is fine, but we just want to be cautious. So, please cooperate with the crew and we'll make it to Portland just fine."

This happened on my recent trip to Portland. I thought he was joking. Not so.

We made it to Portland, bells and whistles ringing. The remainder of the trip was quiet; the return flight experienced no problems at all.