Startling footage captured the moment smoke flooded a Paris-bound flight after a violent bird strike, leaving panicked passengers covering their faces with oxygen masks until they reached safety.
Iberia flight IB-579 had just taken off from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barjas Airport in Madrid Sunday when a large bird obliterated the plane’s nose, forcing it to turn around and make an emergency landing, ABC 7 Chicago reported.
“We thought it was the turbulence that the captain was talking about, but then we started hearing a noise,” passenger Giancarlo Sandoval, who recorded the frightening scene and shared it on social media, told the outlet.
“We were like, OK, something’s going on.”
The spine-chilling video shows Sandoval pressing an oxygen mask to his face as the plane rumbled with a disturbing noise and smoke billowed through the aircraft.
Vuelo Iberia 579 madrid paris , tuvimos que bolver a barajas a aterrizaje de emerrgencia , yodo salio bien al aprecer chocamos un ave pic.twitter.com/LBHNGQXnxG
— Giancarlo Sandoval (@Giancarlo_Sndvl) August 3, 2025
A baby can be heard hysterically crying in the background, as scared passengers sit frozen in silence before eventually clapping with relief when the plane landed safely back in Spain’s capital.
The flight, headed to Paris Orly Airport in France, had reportedly only been in the air for 20 minutes.
Photos shared on social media also showed the jet’s nose smashed in — with a gaping hole — and what appeared to be blood splattered on the side of the plane.
“The entire flight crew, including pilots and cabin crew, acted with the utmost professionalism in managing the situation and attending to the passengers,” the Spanish airline told the outlet.
