Lion Air plane hits cow, skids off runway in Indonesia
The Lion Air passenger jet is seen in a field after crashing into a cow at Gorontalo airport, on Sulawesi island, on Aug. 7, 2013.
Indonesia already has a woeful aviation safety record and the following story is unlikely to boost confidence.
A Lion Air plane carrying 110 passengers ended up in a field after hitting a cow, which had been wandering across the runway as the Boeing 737-900 came into land late Tuesday at Gorontalo, on Sulawesi island.
Miraculously, no one was killed or injured in the accident. The cow, however, was crushed to death under one of the plane’s wheels.
The pilot said he thought there were three dogs in front of the aircraft, “but it turned out there were three cows wandering in the middle of the runway.”
The airport was temporarily closed after the incident, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded on the eve of the Eid holiday.
This isn’t the first Lion Air plane to end up somewhere other than the landing strip.
In April, a Lion Air passenger jet crashed into the sea after missing the runway at Bali’s Denpasar airport. No one died, but at least 22 people were injured.
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