Plane in emergency landing after colliding with eagle and rabbit
A plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday - after it collided with an eagle carrying a rabbit in its claws.
Virgin Australia Flight VA-391 was travelling to Brisbane from Melbourne at around 4,500ft when crew noticed "excessive vibration" in the left engine, reports the Telegraph.
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The pilot decided to make an emergency landing and headed back to Melbourne airport.
The flight, carrying 174 passengers, made a safe landing just 17 minutes after departing.
According to FlightRadar24 the flight was then cancelled.
The incident was reported by The Aviation Herald, which wrote: "A Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800, registration VH-YFX performing flight VA-319 from Melbourne,VI to Brisbane,QL (Australia), was climbing out of Melbourne's runway 27 when the crew declared PAN reporting excessive left hand engine (CFM56) vibrations and decided to return to Melbourne.
"The aircraft levelled off at 5000 feet. The crew advised an eagle carrying a rabbit had just impacted their #1 engine, positioned the aircraft for an approach to runway 16.
"The aircraft landed safely on runway 16 about 17 minutes after departure."
It's not the only eagle-and-prey collision to have ever occurred.
Back in 1987, an Alaska Airlines plane collided with a fish, which had been dropped by an eagle.
The plane was flying at around 400ft when the incident occurred. The bald eagle dropped its prey onto the cockpit window, and the eagle escaped injury.
