X Games Dirt Biker Forced To Make Emergency Landing After Bird Gets Caught In Engine

MINNEAPOLIS—Avoiding a potentially even greater disaster with his split-second decision-making, X Games motocross rider Nate Adams was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing Thursday after a bird flew into his engine during a jump in the Moto X Freestyle Finals. “Striking the bird right after takeoff immediately resulted in full engine failure, and at that point I had no other choice but to bring her down,” said Adams, who was halfway through performing a double backflip at an approximate altitude of 27 feet when he lost all thrust from the damaged 80cc engine and resorted to carefully gliding the bike to an improvised landing on the dirt track. “It was definitely frightening, but in moments like that you really don’t have time to panic. All you can do is trust your training and the thousands of hours of Big Air time you’ve logged. I’m just lucky the firefighters rushed to the scene in time to put out the flames before my bike exploded.” Event officials told reporters that the scary incident was a reminder of the X Games 2007 tragedy, when Best Trick participant Travis Pastrana mysteriously vanished off radar screens mid-flight and was never recovered.