A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-200, performing flight from Denver to Washington Dulles (USA), was in the initial climb out of Denver’s runway cleared to climb when the crew requested to level off at 10,000 feet due to a bird strike to figure out what is going on.

The crew decided to initially continue the departure route. Then the crew subsequently advised they were slowing to 250 KIAS, however, aircraft was already in the climb past the runway end when there was a really loud bang.

The crew advised they would return as a precaution, no need to declare emergency, they needed to burn off some fuel, the crew commented it probably was a “duck on a bad day”.

The aircraft entered a hold on the localizer runway, burned off fuel and landed safely back on Denver’s runway about one hour after departure.

A passenger reported the crew announced after landing that there was a large dent.

A replacement A320-200 registration N206FR reached Washington with a delay of 3:10 hours.