Explosive pictures show the moment a bird shattered the cockpit of a £73million warplane.
Aviation photographer Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero captured the scene as a seagull hit a Eurofighter at a Spanish display in June.
The images showed the bird soaring just in front of the display plane. A second photo showed a mist of red chunks and feathers sliding off the Eurofighter.
Amazingly, Javier didn’t notice what he had captured until checking out his pictures later.
He explains: ‘This happened at San Javier Air Base, on the beach of Santiago de la Ribera, Murcia on June 15.
‘I was at the base in the San Javier area, at the site where they took us photographers. We were watching the Eurofighter display when we saw it leave without finishing the display.
‘They reported over the radio that it had hit a seagull and broken the cockpit. Just then, I looked at the photos I had and saw the whole sequence.
‘When I looked at the photos, I was amazed to see the front of the cockpit broken.
‘Luckily, the pilot landed and was unharmed.’
Javier used a Nikon D7500 with a Nikon 200-500mm telephoto lens.
The incident happened at the Aire25 international air festival held at San Javier Air Base.
Last year, a fighter plane was seen on tape apparently close to losing control and flying straight towards a crowd at a Turkish airshow.
The aircraft can be seen rocking in the air before the pilot suddenly pulls the nose up just before it reaches the spectators.
The terrifying incident happened at the TEKNOFEST airshow in Adana, southern Turkey on October 3 last year, local media has reported.
It is understood the near-miss occurred at the end of a demonstration flight by the SoloTurk, Turkey’s aircraft acrobatics team and involved a F-16 fighter jet.
According to reports, an investigation was launched into the incident with experts examining the aircraft’s video recordings and other flight information.
