- WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT
This is the moment a vulture crashes into the cockpit of a plane, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing with the dead bird dangling in front of him.
Footage taken mid-flight on the plane showed the dead bird’s carcass, covered in blood and ruffled feathers, hanging by its legs from the top of the windshield.
The pilot’s hair was tossed by the wind coming through a huge gap in the window.
The pilot, who was flying the plane to Eirunepé, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, on December 5 with five passengers on board, was seen taxiing on the runway without further incident.
Photographs taken after the plane landed showed a gaping hole in the left side of the plane’s windshield.
Blood can be seen splattered on the glass and metal, with one of the vulture’s wings holding it in place.
Inside the place you can see large fragments of glass on the board.
The single-engine plane reportedly took off from Envira, also in Amazonas.
Footage taken mid-flight on the plane showed the dead bird’s carcass, covered in blood and ruffled feathers, hanging by its legs from the top of the windshield.
Photos taken after the plane landed showed a gaping hole in the left side of the plane’s windshield.
Miraculously, none of the passengers were injured during the incident.
None of the passengers were injured, and images show the visibly shaken pilot and co-pilot narrating the situation to the other people on board.
The pilot was heard saying: ‘That was close! Blame it on the landfill next to the airport, which attracts an absurd number of vultures to the area.’
According to local media, birds scavenging the nearby landfill pose a constant risk to planes approaching the airport.
One passenger, who was not named, said: “We thought we wouldn’t get out alive.” It was a miracle to land with that in the pilot’s face.