Wed, 04 Oct '06

Bizarre Vulture Collision Downs Piper PA-32

In a sad and bizarre coincidence, three people in Brazil were killed when their Piper PA-32 crashed after colliding mid-air with a giant tropical vulture called an Urubu.

This accident occurred Monday, just three days after the worst air crash in Brazilian history from another mid-air between an airliner and business jet.

The six-seat Piper was coming in for a landing at the Pinheiros Airport in north-east Brazil when it suffered the bird strike.

"Because the airport in Pinheiros is near a garbage dump, it is pretty common to have vultures swarming around the planes," said Edson Santos, an administrator at Litoranea Air Taxis, who owned the plane, to the Associated Press.

"But we have never had a crash like this before."

It is not know at this time exactly how the giant bird caused the aircraft to go down into a dense forest around 100 yards from the runway.

The aircraft was on a routine flight, transporting money for the Brazilian Central Bank. The pilot and two bank officials died in the wreckage.