Vulture removed from Ryanair wing in Crete, paper says

A vulture had to be removed from the wing of a Ryanair flight awaiting takeoff at Iraklio airport on the Greek island of Crete, the local newspaper Patris reported Monday.

Patris said the fire service was called in late Sunday to remove the large bird to avoid potential damage to the plane. The newspaper published pictures showing the vulture tucked inside a firefighter's fireproof jacket. It did not specify where the flight was headed.

Other local sites showed a picture of the vulture landing on the plane's tail wing. The bird was later placed in a wooden box and delivered to the island's natural history museum for care.

Birds are routinely sucked into aircraft engines and can sometimes cause serious accidents. Last week, the US National Transportation Safety Board said bird remains had been found in the engine of a Ryanair plane involved in a flight from Greece to Germany in which a blade broke off, shattered a cabin window and partially sucked a passenger outside.