A Turkish airliner skidded off a runway, crashed into a ditch and broke apart while landing in bad weather in Istanbul Wednesday, eliminating 3 people and injuring lots more. Guests had to scramble through the split fuselage to escape.
The aircraft, run by low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines, was arriving at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport from the western Turkish city of Izmir with 183 guests and team on board when it had what the Transport Ministry referred to as a “rough landing.”
Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya stated the plane stopped working to “keep the runway” and skidded some 50-60 meters prior to it dropped into the ditch from a height of about 30 meters.
” We are deeply saddened … (However) we are extremely delighted that we left a higher accident,” Yerlikaya said, including that the aircraft might have burst into flames.
Rescuers, assisted by an excavator, were seen dealing with one area on the wreckage and it was not clear if they were searching for a single person who stays unaccounted for.
The airport was closed down after the occurrence, which happened at around 6.30 p.m. regional time (1530 GMT), and flights were diverted to Istanbul’s primary airport.
‘ Occurred in seconds’
Survivor Dogus Bilgic, 24, told Turkish television channel NTV that he fled the smashed airplane by way of a gap near his seat and was one of the very first travelers to get out.
” We took a trip (on the runway) for some 20 or 30 seconds, then all of a sudden we flew off the runway,” he stated while seated in a wheelchair since of a leg injury. “It took place in seconds.”
” I was seated in 25 C. I think the airplane broke apart at row 26,” Bilgic recal