A Ural Airlines A321-100 went down in a cornfield in Moscow earlier today with 226 passengers and 7 crew members. The crew made the forced landing after the Airbus ingested large birds, reportedly seagulls, in both engines, causing one to catch on fire and the other to malfunction.
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The accident happened just after the plane had taken off from Moscow’s Zhukovsky bound for Simferopol, Ukraine, and was at just 750 feet AGL when the jet encountered the birds, giving the pilots precious seconds to make critical decisions.
The pilots reportedly shut down both engines before they landed, leaving the gear up, presumably to prevent the plane from digging in and flipping in the soil of the field.
There were no fatalities reported. Ten passengers were injured.
This is a breaking story. We will update it as new information comes to light.
