'Big bird' strikes bigger bird, tearing hole in underbody

The 'big bird' left a pretty big hole in the aircraft. Photo / Twitter

An Air Namibia plane was only 45 minutes into its journey when it collided with birds.

The bird strikes caused extensive damage to the plane but the pilot managed to land it without trouble, much to the relief of all passengers and crew aboard the aircraft.

The Boeing 737 was travelling from Ad Damazeen to Khartoum International Airport, in Sudan.

This afternoon we had a bird strike upon landing. We landed peacefully & we are all fine!
@Prbeverlyangel#GoodNews pic.twitter.com/sTGx3WYc0d

— Ellen Angel (@pastor_ellen) January 14, 2016

A spokesman for the airline told local news a "big bird" collided with the plane.

"Bird strikes are common during landing and taking off of an aircraft because these are the times when the aircraft is flying in the ranges when bird are also flying," Paul Nakawa told the Namibian.

"Regarding this recent incident, a big bird hit one of our four A319-100 aircraft that services our regional routes just when it was about to land. It left one of the underbody panels of the aircraft damaged."

The aircraft was carrying 112 passengers.