The Canadian C17 Globe Master had just taken off from Prestwick when the crew reported a birdstrike around 1000ft after takeoff which led to a total engine failure.
A full emergency was sparked by the airport - many fire, police and ambulances made their way to the emergency entrance.
VIDEO (See emergency services respond at the end of the video):
The engine was shut down, and he carried on with the other three engines in a holding pattern to go through the engine failure checklist.
It was decided that he wanted to land immediately after permission was granted from air traffic control that he could land overweight.
The aircraft was still full of fuel for the long journey he originally planned to depart to.
Once the plane safely landed after a few orbits over Ayr, the Airport fire service inspected the aircraft and reported that several fan blades were severely damaged suggesting that it was probably a large bird that the engine would have ingested - no reports tell of what kind of bird.
A single engine for the C17 is around approximately $9.75million with the full cost of the aircraft being $225 million.
© Daniel Sander for Ayrshire Daily News | See more videos from Daniel!