Bird causes emergency landing in Russia
Posted: 11 January 2010 0144 hrs

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MOSCOW: A Swiss airline flight made an emergency landing just after takeoff in Saint Petersburg on Sunday when a bird was caught in one of its engines, but no one was injured, Russian news agencies said.

The Airbus 319 was to travel to Zurich with 123 passengers and seven crew members, but turned around and landed at Pulkovo airport because of an engine problem, the agencies reported, citing an official from the regional prosecutors office.

"After the plane's takeoff at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT), the crew informed authorities that there were vibrations in an engine," the official said.

"Checks revealed that the vibrations were caused by the presence of a bird in one of the engines."

Last year, a US Airways pilot was forced to carry out a dramatic crash-landing in New York's Hudson River, saving the passengers, after birds flew into the plane's engine. - AFP/de