The aircraft had to perform an emergency landing in Hamburg on Monday after it was struck by birds
A Luxair aircraft was forced to perform an emergency landing in Hamburg on Monday afternoon, just days after a Cargolux jet avoided a near crash when one of its engines hit the runway at Findel airport.
Birds flew into the plane on its return to Luxembourg from Oslo, newspaper Tageblatt reported. The impact broke the outer layer of the cockpit window, forcing the pilot to perform an unplanned landing in Hamburg.
The aircraft, a De Havilland DHC-8 that can sit around 80 passengers, landed safely in the Northern German city and nobody on board was injured, Tageblatt reported.
Bird strikes are unlikely but when they happen they can injure pilots and cause severe damage to a plane. In 2009, a bird strike caused a US-Airways flight to lose both engines shortly after taking off at LaGuardia airport in New York City, forcing pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to perform an emergency landing on the Hudson river.
The Luxair incident came just days after a Cargolux aircraft had a lucky escape when the cargo jet had to abort a landing after one of its engines hit the runway at Findel Airport.
The aircraft, which was arriving from Dubai at 18:30 on Saturday, first touched down with its landing gear but then shifted to its left, causing one of its engines to hit the tarmac, a video uploaded to Twitter on Sunday showed. The pilot then aborted the landing attempt, the video showed.
