A passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing after colliding with a bird just after take-off.
The chaotic moments were captured on video from a passenger inside the Iberia plane.
“We thought that it was the turbulence that the captain was talking about, but then we started hearing a noise… and we were like, okay, something’s going on,” said passenger Giancarlo Sandoval.
The bird strike happened just minutes after the flight took off on Sunday from Madrid bound for Paris.
Video shared on social media shows nearly half of the plane’s nose wiped out.
Sandoval recorded the frightening moments in the air as passengers used oxygen masks as cabin smoke surrounded them.
Iberia issued the following statement:
“The entire flight crew, including pilots and cabin crew, acted with the utmost professionalism in managing the situation and attending to the passengers.”
ABC News contributor Col. Steve Ganyard, USMC (Ret.), said bird strikes are very common.
“Fewer than 10% of those bird strikes cause damage to the aircraft,” Ganyard said, “In this case, the damage was severe enough to one of the engines that it caused smoke coming into the cabin.
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