FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A vulture smashed through the windshield of a small plane, forcing the pilot to make a quick emergency landing in Florida, officials say.
The unidentified pilot, who was the sole occupant of the Cessna 402C, managed to land the plane Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport despite suffering minor injuries in the collision with a 25-pound turkey vulture, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Dave Donovan, president of Air Flight, the charter company that owns the plane, told the newspaper that the pilot refused hospitalization after making the emergency landing.
"The pilot saw the bird flying off in the distance, made an evasive move and the bird made the same evasive move," Donovan told the newspaper, adding, "Florida has lots of birds. Eventually, you're going to hit one."
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International officials told the Sun-Sentinel that birds and planes collided 19 times there in 2008, an issue that gained international attention with last month's emergency landing of a US Airways jet on New York's Hudson River after it collided with a flock of geese.
