A321 Pilots Considered Heroes in Kremlin Despite Serious Damage to Cornfield

The Kremlin has commented on the incident involving an aircraft that made an emergency landing in a cornfield in the Moscow region, announcing that the pilots will be rewarded in the shortest possible time. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the President of Russia, stated that state awards are given by the directive of the head of state.

“When heroes are nominated for awards, the necessary procedures will be carried out in a timely manner, there is no doubt about that, and they will be honored,” Peskov said, emphasizing that the pilots are considered heroes in the Kremlin.

All factors of the incident will become clear after an investigation, which promises to be swift as the aircraft's “black boxes” have been preserved, Peskov noted.

Earlier, it was reported that the cornfield where the Moscow-Simferopol flight performed the emergency landing this morning was set to feed livestock during the winter months. Sergey Dolzhikov, the landowner, shared this with Russian REN TV.

“We don’t have the opportunity to assess the damage yet, as we are not being allowed close to the site, but I believe it is serious. When they take the plane away from there, the field will be completely destroyed. We need to think about how to feed the livestock in the winter,” he said. However, according to him, the most important thing is that this incident ended without casualties.

It should be noted that the Russian airline Ural Airlines’ A321 aircraft made an emergency landing in the Moscow region this morning shortly after taking off from Zhukovsky Airport. During ascent, the aircraft collided with a flock of birds, resulting in the failure of both engines due to bird strikes. One of the engines caught fire.

There were 234 people onboard, including a crew of seven. Currently, it is known that 74 passengers were injured in the emergency landing.