Russian jet crash-lands in field outside Moscow after striking flock of gulls

A Russian passenger jet flew into a flock of birds then crash-landed in a cornfield just outside a Moscow airport Thursday, according to Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency. The Ural Airlines Airbus A321 was carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven from Moscow's Zhukovsky airport to Simferopol -- a city on the Crimean Peninsula -- when it ran into trouble. Shortly after takeoff, the plane "collided with a flock of gulls," according a statement from the agency. Some of the birds were sucked into its engines, it added. The emergency landing took place in a field less than a kilometre away from the airport's runway. Videos posted to social media show the passengers of flight U6178 evacuating from the plane and making a path through the field.<br/>In one video, a female passenger walking through the tall green stalks can be heard saying "second birth," noting that she was lucky to just be alive. Pilot Damir Yusupov, 41, and co-pilot Georgy Murzin, 23, were praised by the airline for their professionalism in difficult circumstances. "Precisely due to their professionalism, self-possession and coordinated actions (they) managed to land a plane without tragic consequences," a Ural Airlines statement said. Up to 55 passengers, including 17 children, have been given medical attention, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Six have been hospitalised, it said.<br/>