Woman hit in head by a propeller during emergency landing, and survives

A woman has described how she is "lucky" to be alive after being hit in the head by a part of an aircraft's propeller that had sliced through the plane's fuselage following an emergency landing.

Christina Kurylo was on board an Air Canada flight that was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off on Thursday, after a tire on one of the plane's wheels blew as it was departing Calgary.

"I'm really lucky. It could have been a million times worse," Ms Kurylo told Global News. "I could have died, you know, you never know what could have happened."

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Edmonton International Airport, Canada, as the winds were too strong for the plane to turn back to Calgary.

Ms Kurylo was one of four people taken to hospital after the plane skidded on the tarmac during the emergency landing, causing one of its propellers to slam into the fuselage as the aircraft tipped over onto one side.

One passenger described how the whole inside of the plane blew out causing fiberglass to be embedded into Ms Kurylo's skin, before a huge purple lump appeared on her head after she was hit by the propellor.

A total of 71 passengers with five air crew were on the flight bound for Grand Prairie. The three other injured people were released from the University of Alberta Hospital with minor injuries on Friday morning.

Jazz Aviation said the remaining passengers and crew were evaluated by medical responders on the scene and released. The incident is being investigated.

Photo shows the propeller of flight forced to land in #yeg crashed through window: http://t.co/pGPb2wzGfr pic.twitter.com/8Hf0HFn9T5

— CTV Edmonton (@ctvedmonton) November 9, 2014

An Edmonton International Airport spokesperson said: "The sort of least worst scenario is minor injuries like this, so we're certainly very happy to be in a position that there are no worse injuries than that."