A Turkish budget airliner with 177 people aboard skidded off the runway as it tried to land in Istanbul during rough weather Wednesday, killing one person and leaving at least 157 injured, according to reports.
The Transportation Ministry said that accident was the result of a “rough landing” during heavy rain at Sabiha Gokcen Airport after the Boeing 737-800 belonging to Pegasus Airlines was buffeted by strong winds.
“We are deeply saddened … (But) we are very happy that we escaped a greater accident,” Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said before the country’s health minister announced the fatality.
Television footage showed serious damage to the plane, which arrived from the city of Izmir on Turkey’s Aegean coast. Passengers were seen being evacuated from the shattered fuselage after the plane dropped about 100 feet at the end of the runway.
State broadcaster NTV reported that the plane tried to land in a heavy tailwind, which results in a faster ground speed.
NTV broadcast a recording of the communications between the flight crew and traffic controllers in which the pilots were told that previous flights had reported strong tail winds.
“According to the information we obtained, the plane … drifted to the land as a result of the hard landing,” Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan said, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
“The accident occurred after (the plane) could not decelerate and rammed into a field from the end of the runway,” he added.
There were 171 passengers and six crew members on the plane.
Yerlikaya said most of the injured, who were transferred to nearby hospitals, were in good condition, the news agency reported.
But the two pilots, a Turkish national and a South Korean, were in critical condition, NTV reported.
Eyewitness Hasan Eraydin, who shot video of the accident, said he had been driving home from work when he heard a rumble.
“We were about 30 meters away … we tried to get to the scene to help, but there was some sort of a canal in between and it was impossible. We thought, ‘God willing, no one has died,’” he said.
Flights to Sabiha Gokcen, which lies on the Asian side of Turkey’s commercial hub, was closed after the mishap and flights were diverted to Istanbul’s main airport.
Pegasus, which has been flying for 20 years, is majority owned by Turkish billionaire Sevket Sabanci.
It has a fleet of 83 aircraft, including 47 Boeings and 36 Airbus planes, according to its website. The Boeing 737-800 predates the 737 Max variant grounded around the world after two fatal crashes, and has a generally good safety record.
The incident is the second involving Pegasus Airlines at the same airport, which also was shut down Jan. 7 when its plane skidded off a runway during heavy rain. None of the 164 passengers were injured in that incident.
And in January 2018, another Pegasus jet skidded off the runway at Turkey’s Trabzon Airport, sending 168 passengers and crew over the side of a cliff, narrowly avoiding a plunge into the Black Sea, according to a Fox News report.
The airline confirmed there were no injuries, but passengers reported screaming and panic inside the cabin.
With Post wires
