A cow caused quite the chaotic scene at an airport in Indonesia. A passenger jet reportedly hit a cow when it was landing, causing it to skid off the runway.
A Lion Air jet with 110 passengers and seven crew members crashed into one of three cows that had wandered onto the runway in Gorontalo, on Sulawesi Island, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
According to Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan, three cows were on the runway and the jet hit at least one of them before it careened off the runway and came to a stop.
None of the crew or passengers were injured, but the cow wasn't so lucky. The animal was crushed to death under one of the Boeing 737-900's middle wheels. Pilot Iwan Permadi told Antara news agency that he could smell "burning meat" during the incident. At first, he thought there were dogs on the runway, but he soon found out that they were cows.
The plane had left Jakarta and had a stopover in Makassar, on Sulawesi. During the crash, the plane suffered minor damage as it skidded into a field next to the runway. All the passengers managed to disembark safely.
The crash forced several flights to be cancelled as the airport was closed. Hundreds of passengers who were traveling for the Eid holiday were left stranded at the airport. The incident is being investigated.
Indonesia has the worst aviation safety records in Asia. This isn't the only incident to occur recently. In April, another Lion Air jet belly-flopped into the ocean, coming short of the runway off the resort island of Bali. Fortunately, all 108 people aboard survived.
Lion Air recently put in orders with Airbus and Boeing. The airline is aiming to own 1,000 planes within the next decade.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
