Warning: graphic content below.
A pilot in Brazil was forced to make an emergency landing after a vulture crashed right through the windshield of his cockpit. But miraculously, neither the pilot nor his five passengers were injured due to the enormous bird.
The incident occurred on Dec. 5 in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, on a flight that had embarked from the municipality of Envira en route to Eirunepé, in the western region of the country. Somewhat gruesome photos and video show the dead bird dangling from a massive hole in the left side of the plane’s windshield, with blood splattered across the glass and shards of glass on the dashboard.
Yet, the pilot managed to calmly land the plane, despite being visibly shaken by the ordeal, even as wind gusted through from the hole, blowing through his hair.
Per the Daily Mail, the pilot could be heard saying in the video: “It was a close call! This is the fault of the landfill next to the airport, which attracts an absurd amount of vultures to the area.” Local media likewise blamed the landfill for the scavenging birds of prey for presenting an ever-present risk to planes flying into the airport.
One of the passengers added: “We thought we wouldn’t get out alive. It was a miracle to land with that in the pilot’s face.”
A similar incident took place in Ecuador last year when a large bird believed to have been an Andean Condor—a type of vulture native to parts of western South America—crashed through the windshield of a crop duster plane mid-air, bloodying the pilot. In that instance, the pilot was also able to land the plane safely.
