AA passenger plane has slid off the runway at Istanbul Airport. The plane then broke apart and caught fire. There were some injuries.
In an almost catastrophe at Istanbul Airport Sabiha Gökcen, a plane with 177 passengers came off the runway and broke apart. A first statement from the Turkish Ministry of Transport said that there were no fatalities.
Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan spoke of the injured in television interviews. He gave no information about the number. 32 ambulances were sent to the scene of the accident, the minister added. Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya said on Twitter that 52 people had been taken to hospitals. The evacuation is still ongoing.
“Machine makes hard landing”
Television pictures showed that the front part of the machine was completely torn off, as well as serious breaks in the rear part. There was a fire on the first pictures. According to the transmitter TRT, the aircraft broke into three parts. The TV pictures also showed how passengers climbed out over a wing.
According to an eyewitness interviewed by TRT, passengers initially left the plane on their own, and help came later. According to initial information, the machine had made a “hard landing” and then slid off-road, said Turhan.
At first, there was no information about the reasons for the accident, which, with a lot of luck, was probably not very good. In Istanbul, the weather on Wednesday was stormy and rainy.
Second accident since the beginning of the year
According to the television pictures, it is a machine from Pegasus. According to official information, 177 passengers were on board. The NTV broadcaster, citing the Minister of Transport, reported that there were children among them. The machine is said to have come from the city of Izmir in western Turkey. The airport was closed, flights were diverted to the main port of the metropolis, said Transport Minister Turhan.
At the Sabiha Gokcen airport, a Pegasus plane had only left the runway at the beginning of January. The accident occurred because of the bad weather, the governorate of the province of Istanbul said at the time.
