Russian Pilot Compared to Legendary 'Sully' After Heroically Landing Plane in Cornfield: Watch Video

Two Russian pilots safely landed an airliner carrying 233 people in a cornfield outside Moscow after striking a flock of birds, prompting the Kremlin to hail them as heroes who will receive top state awards.

Russians have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 came down in a field southeast of Moscow with its landing gear up after hitting a passing flock of gulls, disrupting the plane's engines.

The event drew comparisons to the 2009 "Miracle on the Hudson," when Captain Chesley Sullenberger ditched his plane in New York's Hudson River after a bird strike disabled his engines.

In 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 hit a flock of geese after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport and both of its engines shut down. The crew made an emergency landing in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan, and everyone survived.

The "Miracle on the Hudson" was immortalized in the Hollywood movie "Sully," based on the autobiography of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and starring Tom Hanks.

State television said the incident was being dubbed the "miracle over Ramensk", the name of the district near Moscow where the plane came down around one kilometre (0.62 miles) from Zhukovsky International Airport.

Up to 74 people, including 19 children, were treated for injuries, six of whom have been hospitalised, Russian news agencies quoted the emergencies ministry as saying.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid praised pilot Damir Yusupov as a "hero," saying he had saved 233 lives, "having masterfully landed a plane without its landing gear with a failing engine right in a corn field."

"We congratulate the hero pilots who saved people's lives," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin would see that the men were quickly given state honours. "There's no doubt about this. They will be given awards."

With Inputs from Agencies