The Kremlin lauded two Russian pilots as heroes and said they would be handed state awards after they landed an airliner carrying 233 people in a cornfield outside Moscow after striking a flock of birds during take-off.
Russians have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 came down in a field south east of Moscow with its landing gear up after hitting a passing flock of gulls, disrupting the plane’s engines.
Up to 55 people, including 17 children, were treated for injuries, six of whom have been hospitalised, Russian news agencies quoted the emergencies ministry as saying.
State television said the incident was being dubbed the “miracle over Ramensk”, the name of the district near Moscow where the plane came down around one kilometre (0.62 miles) from Zhukovsky International Airport.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid praised pilot Damir Yusupovas a “hero,” saying he had saved 233 lives, “having masterfully landed a plane without its landing gear with a failing engine right in a corn field.”
Some drew comparisons with U.S. Airways Flight 1549 which performed a landing on the Hudson River in New York in 2009 after striking a flock of geese.
“We congratulate the hero pilots who saved people’s lives, “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin would see that the men were quickly given state honours. “There’s no doubt about this. They will be given awards.”
