Bird strikes are a constant worry for pilots, but it still must have come as something of a shock to one Japanese pilot when a giant albatross crashed into his plane.
The unfortunate bird left a one metre-wide crater in the nose of the coastguard Bombardier Dash 8 patrol plane flying over the East China Sea near Ishigaki island in Okinawa prefecture, western Japan, last month.
None of the crew was hurt although the same could not be said of the albatross, whose dead carcass lodged itself firmly in to the nose of the jet.
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The number of cases of bird strikes near Tokyo’s Narita International Airport has increased significantly over the last few years years, rising from 46 in 2009 to 82 in 2010.