Was it looking for “carrion” luggage?
A Brazilian pilot literally flipped the bird after a vulture crashed through his cockpit window and lay lifeless in front of him for the rest of the flight, wild footage shows.
“It was a close call!” ” the anonymous flyboy told Jam Press while recounting the wild incident.
The single-engine plane was carrying five passengers from Envira to Eirunepé, in Brazil’s Amazon region, on Thursday, December 5, when the plane was hit head-on by the nozzle, which eventually shattered the windshield.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
Footage taken after the crash shows the carcass-eater’s corpse hanging in front of the stunned pilot like a macabre ornament on the dashboard.
Meanwhile, he can be heard explaining the avian aviation accident to those on board.
Despite the freak accident, the calm flyboy managed to land the plane at Eirunepe Airport without incident, while later reports revealed that no one was “winged” in the accident.
“We thought we wouldn’t make it out alive,” said one of the relieved passengers. “It’s a miracle the pilot managed to land with that in the face.”
The steel-nerved aviator, meanwhile, suggested that the poultry incident might not be as improbable as it seemed.
“It’s the fault of the landfill next to the airport, which attracts an absurd number of vultures to the area,” he said.
Indeed, according to local media, the flocks of buzzards collecting debris from the landfill represent a major risk for planes approaching the airport.
This isn’t the first time a pilot has been nearly taken out by a feather bag in flight.
In June 2023, an aviator was flying over the Ecuador when a huge bird crashed into the cockpit, bloodying his face like in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
Some people have suggested the avian could be an Andean condor – essentially an oversized buzzard with a wingspan of up to 9 feet.
