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Udder surprise: Plane hits cow

Thursday, 8 August 20133 min read

A Lion Air jet carrying 117 passengers and crew hit a cow while landing and skidded off a runway in Indonesia.

No injuries were reported, but the incident forced the cancellation of flights, stranding hundreds of passengers travelling for the Eid holiday.

A transportation ministry spokesman said the incident occurred on Tuesday night as the Boeing 737-800 plane from Jakarta was landing at Jalaluddin airport on Sulawesi island,

There were three cows wandering on the runway, the spokesman said, and the plane hit and killed at least one of them.

The pilot, Iwan Permadi, told state-run Antara news agency he could smell "burning meat" as the jet ran over the animal.

In April this year, a Lion Air plane belly-flopped into the ocean short of the runway off the resort island of Bali. All 108 people aboard survived.