Pilot lands plane in Brazil after vulture smashes through cockpit windscreen

The incident took place during a flight to the city of Eirunepe, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, on Thursday, December 5, with local media reports saying that five people were on board the small aircraft at the time.

The footage shows the bird, clearly dead, stuck in the windscreen of the cockpit as the wind blows into the pilot's face. Despite this, the pilot manages to bring the aircraft back down to earth and land it at Eirunepe Airport without incident.

The single-engine plane had reportedly taken off from Envira, also in Amazonas. None of the passengers was injured, with the footage showing the visibly shaken pilot and co-pilot narrating the situation to the other people on board.

The pilot said: "It was a close call! This is the fault of the landfill next to the airport, which attracts an absurd amount of vultures to the area."

The birds scavenging from the nearby landfill site represent a constant risk to aircraft approaching the airport, according to local media.

One passenger, who was not named, said: "We thought we wouldn't get out alive. It was a miracle to land with that in the pilot's face."

Story: NewsX