Stubborn vulture plucked from Ryanair wing before Greece flight

A vulture that refused to leave its spot on a Ryanair plane's wing had to be removed in Greece to prevent any potential damage, according to the local Patris daily. The incident took place on Sunday at Iraklio airport on the Greek island of Crete. The fire service was called in to handle the situation, and photographs showed the bird safely secured inside a firefighter's fireproof jacket.

While the final destination of the flight was not specified, images also showed the vulture perched on the plane's tail wing before it was carefully removed and placed in a wooden box for transport to the island's natural history museum. Birds are known to become lodged in aircraft engines, sometimes leading to severe accidents.

Last week, the US National Transportation Safety Board revealed that a Ryanair plane had found bird remains in its engine after a July 10 flight from Greece to Germany. During the incident, a blade had broken off, causing a cabin window to shatter and partially sucking a passenger out of the plane. Four instances of suspected bird strikes to the plane's engines were reported by flight crews within the previous year, but no damage was discovered during subsequent maintenance inspections.