Russian plane makes emergency landing after flock of seagulls fly into engine

A Russian plane carrying 226 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing Thursday after it collided with a flock of birds.

Ural Airlines flight 178 had just departed from Moscow's Zhukovsky International Airport when a group of seagulls hit both of the aircraft's engines. The pilots were forced to land the plane in a nearby cornfield, less than a mile from where they took off.

Passengers posted videos of the crash-landing to social media, capturing their screams and panic as the plane went down.

The flight, which was headed for the city of Simferopol on the Crimean Peninsula, managed to pull off a safe landing.

Although dozens were reportedly injured in the process, only one person required hospitalization. All 226 passengers, as well as the seven crew members on board, survived the incident.

RELATED: Scenes from the emergency landing outside of Moscow

According to some passengers, the emergency began just moments after liftoff.

"Five seconds later, the lights on the right side of the plane started flashing and there was a smell of burning. Then we landed and everyone ran away," an unnamed passenger said on Russian state TV.

After the landing, passengers posted videos of the landed plane and their evacuation through tall stalks of corn.

In one video, now posted to YouTube, a woman can be heard saying, "second life," seemingly noting her amazement in surviving the incident.

Ural Airlines praised the two pilots, who were forced to land without enough time to lower the plane's wheels.

"Precisely due to their professionalism, self-possession and coordinated actions [they] managed to land a plane without tragic consequences," a statement from the airline said.

The company said the plane's captain, Damir Yusupov, has more than 3,000 hours of flight experience. A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin also praised the pilots as "heroes," saying they would receive awards for their actions.

Russian media outlets have dubbed the landing the "Miracle Over Ramensk," a possible reference to the "Miracle on the Hudson," during which U.S. Airways Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger emergency landed a flight carrying 155 passengers.

That 2009 incident, also caused by birds flying into the craft's engine, turned pilot Sullenberger into a national hero, and the subject of the 2016 Tom Hanks film "Sully."