Plane Carrying 30 Passengers Hits Zebra On Takeoff—Forced To Make Belly Landing

A safari flight headed to Zanzibar struck a zebra while taking off from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park on Sunday, October 4. The aircraft got airborne, but its trip ended with a belly landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport. The zebra was killed, the plane sustained substantial damage, butll 26 passengers and four crew made it out without injury. The Sindbard Air Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, registered 5H-HLL, was flying from Seronera airstrip inside the Serengeti National Park to Zanzibar. After striking the zebra on departure, the crew diverted to Kilimanjaro. The turboprop slid along the runway, trailing smoke or dust, with a fire truck nearby. Landing video and aftermath photograph — FL360aero, October 7, 2026 According to The Aviation Herald, the pilots couldn’t lower the main landing gear and landed with that gear retracted on Kilimanjaro’s runway 9. The airport closed for roughly five hours. Large animals on runways aren’t just an African bush airport problem. I’ve covered an Alaska Airlines regional flight hitting a deer in Santa Rosa and an Alaska Boeing 737 hitting a brown bear in Yakutat. In the bear incident, the runway had been inspected just 10 minutes before the flight arrived. (HT: Joe Brancatelli) Topics on this page