The engine trouble onboard a plane that took the Saudi national football team to Russia’s Rostov-on-Don most likely was caused by a bird strike. The plane landed safely, no one was hurt, the press service of the Rossiya air carrier said.
A video posted on social networks features flames under the flying plane’s wing. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation twitted earlier that all the Saudi national team players were safe.
"An engine failure occurred when flight FV1007 from St. Petersburg was about to land in Rostov-on-Don. According to preliminary data, the failure was caused by a bird strike. The plane landed with two engines on. The aircraft is currently being examined. Flight safety was not jeopardized," the press service said.
"Reports about an alleged fire in the engine are not true," it stressed.
Though "nothing threatened the safety of the flight," this case is "classified as an ‘incident’ according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and by Russia’s civil aviation, and is subject to investigation," TASS cited the statement as saying.
