The scary thing about flying is that there are so many ways one can die several thousands of kilometers and it feels as though you have no control over it. But miraculously, according to Russian state television, a Ural airlines flight had safely landed over a cornfield outside Moscow after it hit a flock of birds.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid lauded the pilot Damir Yusupov as a hero, saying he had saved 233 lives, “having masterfully landed a plane without its landing gear with a failing engine right in a cornfield”.
Some compared the landing to that of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009 after it struck a flock of geese. The Russian plane’s engines were turned off when it made the emergency landing and it also had its landing gear up, said Elena Mikheyeva, a spokeswoman for Russia’s civil aviation authority.
More of this story on The Guardian.
(Image credit: Reuters)
Are they okay?
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