A Russian plane carrying 226 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing Thursday after it collided with a flock of birds.
Ural Airlines flight 178 had just departed from Moscow’s Zhukovsky International Airport when a group of seagulls hit both of the aircraft’s engines. The pilots were forced to land the plane in a nearby cornfield, less than a mile from where they took off.
Passengers posted videos of the crash-landing to social media, capturing their screams and panic as the plane went down.
The flight, which was headed for the city of Simferopol on the Crimean Peninsula, managed to pull off a safe landing.
Although dozens were reportedly injured in the process, only one person required hospitalization. All 226 passengers, as well as the seven crew members on board, survived the incident.
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In this video grab provided by the RU-RTR Russian television, a Russian Ural Airlines’ A321 plane is seen after an emergency landing in a cornfield near Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Russian Ural Airlines’ A321, carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven, collided with a flock of birds while taking off Thursday rfom Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport. Russian health authorities said that 23 people, including five children, have been hospitalized with injuries. (RU-RTR Russian Television via AP)
In this file image taken from a video distributed by Russian Investigative Committee, Investigative Committee employees works at a crash site of a Russian Ural Airlines’ A321 plane is seen after an emergency landing in a cornfield near Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. The Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero Thursday for safely landing his passenger jet in a corn field after it collided with a flock of gulls seconds after takeoff, causing both engines to malfunction. While dozens of people on the plane sought medical assistance, only one was hospitalized. (The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation via AP)
En esta imagen tomada de un video proporcionado por la cadena de televisión rusa RU-RTR, un avión A321 de la aerolínea rusa Ural Airlines se encuentra en medio de un maizal después de realizar un aterrizaje de emergencia cerca de Ramenskoye, en las afueras de Moscú, Rusia, el jueves 15 de agosto de 2019. (RU-RTR Russian Television vía AP)
A Russian Ural Airlines’ A321 plane is seen after an emergency landing in a cornfield near Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Russian Ural Airlines’ A321, carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven, collided with a flock of birds while taking off Thursday rfom Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport. Russian health authorities said that 23 people, including five children, have been hospitalized with injuries. (Denis Voronin, Moscow News Agency via AP)
A Russian Ural Airlines’ A321 plane is seen after an emergency landing in a cornfield near Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Russian Ural Airlines’ A321, carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven, collided with a flock of birds while taking off Thursday from Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport. Russian health authorities said that 23 people, including five children, have been hospitalized with injuries. (Andrei Nikerichev, Moscow News Agency photo via AP)
A view shows the Ural Airlines A321 plane after a hard landing on a corn field near Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport on August 15, 2019. – A Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero on August 15, 2019 for landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)(Photo credit should read YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)
A view shows the Ural Airlines A321 plane after a hard landing on a corn field near Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport on August 15, 2019. – A Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero on August 15, 2019 for landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)(Photo credit should read YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)
Police officers stand guard near the site of hard landing of the Ural Airlines A321 plane on a corn field near Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport on August 15, 2019. – A Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero on August 15, 2019 for landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)(Photo credit should read YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)
TOPSHOT – Police officers stand guard near the site of hard landing of the Ural Airlines A321 plane on a corn field near Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport on August 15, 2019. – A Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero on August 15, 2019 for landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)(Photo credit should read YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)
A view shows the Ural Airlines A321 plane after a hard landing on a corn field near Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport on August 15, 2019. – A Russian pilot was being hailed as a hero on August 15, 2019 for landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)(Photo credit should read YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – AUGUST 15, 2019: An Airbus A321 plane of the Ural Airlines that has made a hard landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport due to an engine fire. Russian Investigative Committee/TASS (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee\TASS via Getty Images)
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – AUGUST 15, 2019: An Airbus A321 plane of the Ural Airlines that has made a hard landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport due to an engine fire. Russian Investigative Committee/TASS (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee\TASS via Getty Images)
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – AUGUST 15, 2019: An Airbus A321 plane of the Ural Airlines that has made a hard landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport due to an engine fire. Russian Investigative Committee/TASS (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee\TASS via Getty Images)
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – AUGUST 15, 2019: An Airbus A321 plane of the Ural Airlines that has made a hard landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport due to an engine fire. Russian Investigative Committee/TASS (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee\TASS via Getty Images)
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – AUGUST 15, 2019: An Airbus A321 plane of the Ural Airlines that has made a hard landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport due to an engine fire. Russian Investigative Committee/TASS (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee\TASS via Getty Images)
Law enforcement officers at the site of a hard landing of an Airbus A321 aircraft of Ural Airlines, which flew from the Zhukovsky airport on a Moscow-Simferopol flight.August 15, 2019. Russia, Moscow region.Photo credit: Dmitry Dukhanin/Kommersant/Sipa USA 
The place of hard landing of the Airbus A321 aircraft of Ural Airlines, flying from the Zhukovsky airport with the flight Moscow – Simferopol.August 15, 2019. Russia, Moscow region.Photo credit: Dmitry Dukhanin/Kommersant/Sipa USA Up Next
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According to some passengers, the emergency began just moments after liftoff.
“Five seconds later, the lights on the right side of the plane started flashing and there was a smell of burning. Then we landed and everyone ran away,” an unnamed passenger said on Russian state TV.
After the landing, passengers posted videos of the landed plane and their evacuation through tall stalks of corn.
In one video, now posted to YouTube, a woman can be heard saying, “second life,” seemingly noting her amazement in surviving the incident.
Ural Airlines praised the two pilots, who were forced to land without enough time to lower the plane’s wheels.
“Precisely due to their professionalism, self-possession and coordinated actions [they] managed to land a plane without tragic consequences,” a statement from the airline said.
The company said the plane’s captain, Damir Yusupov, has more than 3,000 hours of flight experience. A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin also praised the pilots as “heroes,” saying they would receive awards for their actions.
Russian media outlets have dubbed the landing the “Miracle Over Ramensk,” a possible reference to the “Miracle on the Hudson,” during which U.S. Airways Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger emergency landed a flight carrying 155 passengers.
That 2009 incident, also caused by birds flying into the craft’s engine, turned pilot Sullenberger into a national hero, and the subject of the 2016 Tom Hanks film “Sully.”
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