Turkish airliner breaks after runway excursion in Istanbul

Text by: RFI Follow

An airliner with 177 people on board broke and caught fire after leaving the runway for landing in Istanbul on Wednesday, February 5. More than 50 people were injured in the accident.

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The accident is spectacular. After a runway excursion at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, a Pegasus Airlines plane broke in two and caught fire. The front part of the fuselage, comprising the cockpit and the first rows, separated from the rest of the aircraft. A second crack was visible at the rear third of the aircraft, comprising the last 10 rows and the tail of the aircraft.

The Boeing 737, which carried 177 passengers and crew from the city of Izmir in western Turkey, is believed to have departed from the runway due to the heavy rain in the largest city from the country.

According to Turkish media, 12 children were on the plane. The images broadcast by the Turkish media showed people on the grass around the aircraft, as well as a man standing on a wing of the plane. The fire that started after the accident was brought under control by firefighters, the state news agency Anadolu reported.

[Video] #Turkey: #plane leaves runway at Sabiha Gokcen airport in #Istanbul
- The plane arriving from the province of "Izmir left the runway after landing and caught firehttps: //t.co/YvpD8zKW76 pic.twitter.com/ljiIEvZyGL

In a statement, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said 52 people had been injured and hospitalized. Dozens of ambulances were present at the scene of the accident, media reports said. Turkish Transport Minister Cahit Turhan said no one had been killed, but added that some passengers were still trapped in the aircraft. " Some passengers left the plane on their own, but others are trapped inside and our rescue workers are trying to free them, " the minister said on CNN-Türk. According to Turkish media, the two pilots, a Turk and a South Korean, were seriously injured.

Sabiha Gökçen Airport was closed to flights and all planes redirected to Istanbul International Airport, on the European side of the economic capital of Turkey.

( With AFP)

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