A passenger jet belonging to Indonesian carrier, Lion Air, hit a cow when landing and skidded off the runway in Gorontalo, on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.
The jet was carrying 110 passengers and seven crew. It crashed into one of three cows that were wandering about on the runway.
No passengers were reported injured but the incident forced the cancellation of all flights, stranding hundreds of passengers traveling for the Eid al-fitr holiday.
Bambang Ervan, a spokesman for the Transportation Ministry, said three cows were on the runway, and the plane hit at least one of them before it skidded off the tarmac before coming to a stop.
The condition of the cows was unclear.
The Pilot, Iwan Permadi, told Antara news agency that he could smell ‘burning meat’ during the incident, as reported byThe Sydney Morning Herald. You can see him, and other images of the crash, by scrolling down to the video below.
The plane suffered minor damage and ended up in the field next to the runway. According to local media the aircraft had left Jakarta and stopped over in Makassar, on Sulawesi.
Indonesia has Asia’s worst aviation safety record. In April, a Lion Air plane belly-flopped into the ocean just short of the runway off the resort island of Bali. All 108 people aboard survived.
Lion Air has ordered an additional 1000 planes from Airbus and Boeing to be delivered over the next 10 years – cows beware!
Photo Credit: APA/STR
