A plane has been left dented and splattered with blood after it struck a vulture at 3,5000ft.
Terrified passengers breathed a sigh of relief when the aircraft touched down safely with 175 people on board.
The bird of prey clattered into the nose of the Airbus A320 when the plane was about 13 miles from its destination.
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The collision prompted the pilot to initiate an emergency landing.
Photos of the plane taken on Monday (2 Jun) showed a gaping hole and a crack in the front of the aircraft.
The area surrounding the hole was spattered with the bird’s blood, as reported by Need To Know.
IndiGo flight 6152 had taken off from Patna, east of Varanasi, India.
It was coming in to land at Ranchi, to the south of the country, when it struck the bird.
Despite tense moments on board the aircraft, no one was injured and everyone disembarked safely.
Birsa Munda Airport director R R Maurya said: “The aircraft was struck by a bird at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, around 10 to 12 nautical miles from Ranchi.
“The pilot executed an emergency landing without further complications.”
The same plane was due to depart for Kolkata (Calcutta) shortly after arriving at Ranchi.
But the flight had to be cancelled due to the dented airframe.
Maurya said, “Engineers are assessing the damage.”
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, there were more than 270,000 reports of wildlife strikes to aircraft between 2016 and 2021.
But only 3% of these incidents resulted in aircraft damage.
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