Airplane Strikes, Kills Cows Upon Landing in Indonesia

Numerous flights at Indonesia's Jalaluddin Airport were canceled as a result of an airplane crash after it struck three cows as it hit the runway during landing Tuesday night.

The Lion Air flight carrying at least 110 passengers hit the cows as it came in to land, causing the plane to skid off the runway. Minimal injuries were reported, although the cows were killed.

The pilot of the aircraft, Iwan Permadi, told the national news agency Antara that he could smell "burning meat" after the incident.

Permadi initially thought he had seen dogs on the runway, Antara reported.

"Turns out it was three cows that were passing in the middle of the runway when the landing procedure was executed," the pilot said, according to an English translation of the original report in the Indonesian language.

The crash landing occurred Tuesday night on in Gorontalo province in the far north of the island of Sulawesi. Gorontalo Governor Rusli Habibie said Jalaluddin Airport was temporarily closed after a Lion Air aircraft skidded on the runway on Tuesday evening, putting a hindrance on travelers plans for the Eid holiday. The airport has since reopened, according to the BBC.

As a nation of more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia relies heavily on air transportation, but the country has one of Asia's worst air safety records, the BBC reports. 

The fencing around Jalaluddin Airport is not optimal, Governor Habibie said.

"Lion Air management has just told me that animals, particularly dogs, are often seen on the runway. This problem should be immediately resolved," the governor said, according to the Jakarta Post.

In 2008 a similar incident occurred at another Indonesian airport where the runways were not properly fenced off. A calf ran across the runway as the plane was landing and the pilot could not avoid hitting it, the Jakarta Post reported.