What an absolute nightmare scenario…
Imagine you are just peacefully flying along, crop dusting a field. Usually this is done at either dawn or dusk, so you are probably seeing a beautiful sunrise or sunset as you speed through the air in your small, most likely single engine aircraft.
Then WHAM.
A big ass bird comes flying through your windshield, piercing the glass, killing the bird, and sending blood splattering all over you and the surrounding cockpit.
Luckily you don’t have to imagine it, because it happened to some other guy in Ecuador named Ariel Valiente, who somehow was able to keep his composure through the process. Hell, he even took this video while he was flying the thing, so he must have nerves of steel.
The whole thing took place in a province of Ecuador called Vinces, Los Ríos, and the video to prove the occurrence is astounding. With the bird lodged halfway through the glass of the windshield, flopping around lifelessly, the pilot himself shoots the video of the scene.
Blood from the bird stains Valiente’s pant legs and shirt, while also dripping down on portions of the small plane’s control panel. The unlucky bird that was in the wrong place at the wrong time must have been pretty large, judging by the massive legs and talons swinging back and forth just above the control stick.
The video then turns back to Ariel, revealing a splattering of blood all over his face like he’s Sylvester Stallone in Rambo. It’s hard to tell whether he is giving off somewhat of a smirk, or if it is just a neutral face of disgust. He does manage to give off “of course this happened to me” vibes in the footage.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that “Ariel” is just a kick-ass name for a pilot. Sounds a lot like “aerial” of course. Maybe Valiente was destined to fly in the skies, but then again, a bird about the size of his plane’s windshield busted right through the glass, so maybe this is a sign that he wasn’t.
Looks like it could be an Andean condor, AKA a very big-ass bird…
The remarkable video is linked below, and is captioned with:
“In Vinces, Los Ríos province of Ecuador, a huge bird struck through the windshield of a crop duster plane mid-air. Fortunately, the pilot Ariel Valiente managed to control the situation.”
And just a heads up, the media could be considering potentially sensitive content due to the mangled dead bird hanging through the window, so click if you dare:
Twitter users couldn’t get over how freaking cool this pilot was handling the whole situation. Others might have panicked, but Ariel Valiente acted like this was “just another Tuesday” cropdusting session:
Damn straight outta horror movie. Love how calm the pilot is looking, badass.
— The Coll3ctor (@The_Coll3ctor) June 15, 2023
Pilot 1. Bird 0.
— Paul Hathaway (@GrotonPilot) June 15, 2023
Dinner time !!
— Gorgeous George (@azzel01) June 15, 2023
Her: “Honey? How was your day at work?”…
Him: “Well.. you wouldn’t belive me, but good news is that I brought home dinner!”— N8tiveAustin (@AustinN8tive) June 15, 2023
