MIRACULOUS

Over 200 Survive After Russian Passenger Jet Brought Down by Birds

At least 23 people were injured when a Ural Airlines Airbus hit a flock of birds and made an emergency landing in a cornfield.

At least 23 people were injured, including five children, when Ural Airlines Airbus A321 carrying 226 passengers and seven crew members made an emergency landing in a cornfield shortly after takeoff from a Moscow airport on Thursday. Russian authorities say the passenger jet, en route to Crimea, hit a “flock of gulls” on takeoff, which caused both engines to malfunction. Footage from the scene shows a wide swath of broken corn stalks that acted as a cushion for the aircraft. “Some of the birds were sucked into its engines,” an authority with Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency told Russian state media. All but one of the injured have since been released from hospital.