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Incredible photo shows the damage a single bird can do to a passenger plane

Incredible pictures have emerged of the aftermath of a bird strike on an American Airlines flight.

A bird had become lodged in the shell of an Airbus A319 after striking the nose cone while the plane approached Miami International Airport from Mexico City.

A bird strike on an American airlines flight. Source: Carmelo Anthony/ Instagram.
A bird strike on an American airlines flight. Source: Carmelo Anthony/ Instagram.

The plane landed safely, but as Instagram pictures show, the nose cone was badly damaged during the collision.

Ground crews discovered the stowaway bird as the plane taxied along the runway on Wednesday morning.

After disembarking, American basketballer Carmelo Anthony, who was a passenger on the flight posted an image of the damage to social media.

The plane's nose cone was heavily dented. Source: Carmelo Anthony/Instagram
The plane's nose cone was heavily dented. Source: Carmelo Anthony/Instagram

In 2009 a US Airways pilot pulled off a tricky landing on the Hudson River after a flock of geese struck the plane.

The side view gives a sense of the scale of the dent. Source: Carmelo Anthony/Instagram
The side view gives a sense of the scale of the dent. Source: Carmelo Anthony/Instagram

According to recent figures from the US Federal Aviation Administration, more than 142,000 wildlife strikes have affected civil aircraft in the country since 1990, with around 90 per cent of those occurring below 3500 ft.