A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 has been left damaged and covered in blood stains after it flew into a flock of birds on its final approach into Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Friday.
There were 311 passengers onboard flight SQ 336, which had departed Singapore 14 hours earlier.
Photos posted online by Donald Liew show the nose of the massive aircraft dotted with dozens of blood marks where the plane made impact with the birds.
Similar marks spread along the length of the aircraft wings and landing gear.
It's estimated the aircraft, which weighs over 500 tonnes, flew into a flock of dozens of birds just hundreds of metres from the runway.
Bird strikes of this size can be dangerous.
In January 2009 an Airbus A320 flying out of LaGuardia Airport in New York lost power in both engines causing them to stop working. The plane was successfully landed without any fatalities in the incident that has come to be known as 'The Miracle on the Hudson.'
Most major airports have systems in place to deal with bird activity around the airport area.
Auckland's International Airport is located on the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour, an area that attracts tens of thousands of birds.
To deal with this, Auckland Airport has a hazard management programme in place to deal with the risk. This includes monitoring birds behaviour and movement, and minimising food sources from the area such as rubbish, worms and rodents.
None of the passengers on-board were injured, but it's unknown exactly how many birds were killed in the impact.
Newshub.
