A passenger aircraft of state-owned airline Air Zimbabwe veered-off the runway after colliding with a herd of wild pigs at the Harare International Airport slightly injuring two persons.
Transport Minister Nicholas Goche said Thursday that the Chinese-made Xian MA60 60-seater aircraft carrying 34 passengers and four crew and bound for the western city of Bulawayo was about to lift off from the airport's runway shortly after dark when the pigs ran into its path.
The nose and left main landing gear collapsed after impact and a wingtip and the propeller of one of the plane's two engines was damaged, he said. The aircraft came to a halt off the runway.
Goche said that the animals involved were warthogs, but Mervyn Senior, owner of Mbizi game park situated next to the airfield, said it was more likely the culprits were the smaller bushpig.
Air Zimbabwe has three MA60s, two of them imported from China in May 2007, while the third was later donated by the Chinese government. All the planes ply on domestic routes.
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