The birds got into a fight, locked talons and failed to disengage

May 15, 2013 08:46 GMT  ·  By

This past Sunday, workers at the Duluth International Airport, Minnesota got the chance to witness a rather wacky crash landing.

Long story short, two Bald Eagles fell from the sky and landed smack on the airport's runway.

Sources say that the two birds were fighting over either food or territory, and that they somehow managed to lock talons while in midair.

The birds failed to disengage, and eventually started heading towards the ground at an impressive speed.

Conservation officer Randy Hanzal arrived at the scene as soon as possible, and took care of separating the two birds.

He then placed them in the bed of his truck, and wished to take them to a local rehabilitation center.

While Randy was driving, one of the birds managed to escape and flew away. Thus, only one of the eagles eventually made it all the way to the rehabilitation center, where it received appropriate treatment for its injuries.

Both birds are expected to soon recover from this experience.

“Apparently, mature eagles will sometimes fight over territories. They will do battle in the air, crashing into each other and grabbing an intruding eagle with their talons,” Randy Hanzal commented with respect to this incident.

“Usually, they will let go of each other before hitting the ground, but in this case, they had the talons so deeply imbedded in each other they may have been unable to let go,” he further added.