"Once again, those pesky birds have brought down another
jetliner, similar to the Miracle on the Hudson more than ten years ago. In
this case, a Russian jetliner (only moments after departure) ingested birds
into both engines of the Airbus 321 causing the airplane to lose power.
At such a low altitude, there were very few options.
The captain, with more than 3,000 hours of flight time and
an Honors Graduate from his aviation school, spotted a nearby cornfield and
made a picture perfect approach and landing. Given the soft terrain, his
decision to keep the landing gears retracted allowed the fuselage of the
aircraft to remain intact and lessened the extent of the onboard injuries.
The 41 year-old captain then went on to apologize to the passengers, for
failing to get them to their destination.
Of the 226 passengers and 7 crew members, 23 required
medical attention and only one is listed as serious. Given the nature of
the event, coupled with a fully fueled aircraft, the low number of injuries
is already being called a miracle as it could have been much worse.
This "Miracle in the Maize" will certainly be
reviewed and used to train pilots around the world for a dual-engine bird
strike scenario. Nicely done!"
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