Passengers flying from Barnstable to Nantucket
this morning just in time to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving holiday were splattered
with bloody bird guts when a loon smashed through the aircraft’s windshield,
the Barnstable airport manager said.
The Cape Air short-hop flight to the upscale
island took off from Barnstable Municipal Airport at about 9 a.m. with two
pilots and a handful of passengers on board, said airport manager Bud Breault.
Five minutes later, the plane was just soaring
over the coastline when a bird crashed into the plane, shattering the
windshield, and covering the inside of the aircraft with blood, Breault said.
The bird was identified as a red-throated loon.
“That’s a pretty big bird,” Breault said. “A
potential catastrophic accident could have happened.”
The pilots were able to turn the plane around
and land safely back the Barnstable airport, he said.
“I think the pilots deserve some kudos,” Breault
said.
There were no injuries to anybody on board, but
the bird did not make it.
The flight on the Cessna 402, a twin-engine,
nine-passenger aircraft, normally takes 15 minutes.
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