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Passengers were left terrified after a Boeing 737 plane skidded off the runway of Senegal’s main airport, causing injuries to 10 people.
Terrifying video footage shows travellers fleeing the burning aircraft with their bags, while others can be seen taking the emergency slide to safety as screaming is heard in the background.
In one post on Facebook, Malian musician Cheick Siriman Sissoko wrote “Our plane just caught fire”, while a video shows flames engulfing one side of the plane.
Flights have been suspended near the capital Dakar after the plane went into the grass before take-off during the early hours of Thursday, a spokesperson for the main airport Blaise Diagne said.
Other dramatic footage on social media shows the plane with the logo of Senegal-based airline Transair standing on the ground with fire-suppressing foam covering the wing.
Emergency services rushed to evacuate passengers, with four taken to hospital with serious injuries.
In a statement, transport minister El Malick Ndiaye said the flight was heading to Bamako late on Wednesday, and had been carying 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.
The injured are currently being treated while the other survivors have been taken to a hotel to rest.
Transair did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The airline is based in Blaise Diagne airport and operates domestic flights and international routes within West Africa.
It comes just one day after a Boeing cargo plane belonging to the US mail service FedEx crash-landed on its nose in Istanbul.
Sparks were seen flying up the runway after the pilots of the 767 aircraft realised that their front landing gear had failed.
The flight had taken off from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle when the pilot realised the malfunction, with firefighters and rescue teams waiting on the runway to immediately douse it with firefighting foam.
Boeing is already facing scrutiny after a string of mishaps which have included a Lufthansa Airlines plane bouncing along the runway in Los Angeles Airport, and a window ripped off a flight in January, with passengers exposed to a gaping hole.
An investigation into the company has been opened by the US’ Federal Aviation Administration after workers at a South Carolina plant falsified inspection records.
Source: independent.co.uk
