An Airbus A321 with 233 people landed on Thursday in a cornfield in the Moscow region of Russia, after striking a flock of birds, injuring 23 people, Russian authorities said.
The aircraft of the Russian airline Ural Airlines "hit a flock of seagulls taking off" from the Zhukovsky Airport, a suburb of the Russian capital, said the Russian Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatsia in a statement .
"According to preliminary reports, 226 passengers and 7 crew members were on board the aircraft", which was on a flight to Simferopol, the main city of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia, says communicated.
"No fire broke out on the plane"
Several birds were in the engines of the aircraft, causing "significant disruption in their operation," he says. The crew of the plane then decided to land urgently, according to the same source.
The Airbus landed "on a cornfield (...) at a distance of more than one kilometer from the runway, without the landing gear," the agency said. "No fire broke out on the plane," she said. "Everything happened in a few seconds (...) We took off and then got off," Irina Oussatcheva, one of the passengers, told Rossia 24.
23 wounded, including 9 children
According to the Ministry of Health, 23 people, including 9 children, were injured and hospitalized. A previous report prepared by the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported 10 hospitalized people. All passengers and crew members were evacuated from the plane after this incident occurred around 03:20 GMT (5:20 in France), according to the local branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. An investigation was opened, said the Russian Investigation Committee, which is responsible for the main criminal investigations in the country.