Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Thursday 6 February 2020

Airliner skids, breaks open in Istanbul; 1 dead, 157 injured

Associated Press gap near his seat and was
ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish one of the first passengers
airliner skidded off a run- to get out.
way, crashed into a ditch "We traveled (on the run-
and broke apart while land- way) for some 20 or 30 sec-
ing in bad weather in Istan- onds, then all of a sudden
bul Wednesday, killing one we flew off the runway,"
person and injuring dozens he said while seated in a
more. Passengers had to wheelchair because of a
scramble through the split leg injury. "It happened in
fuselage to escape.The air- seconds."
craft, operated by low-cost "I was seated in 25C. I be-
carrier Pegasus Airlines, was lieve the plane broke apart
arriving at Istanbul's Sabiha at row 26," Bilgic recalled,
Gokcen airport from the adding that he threw him-
western Turkish city of Izmir self out of the plane when
with 183 passengers and he saw the opening.
crew on board when it "The front (of the plane)
had what the Transporta- was in a terrible state. I saw,
tion Ministry described as a after I was on the ground,
"rough landing." that it had completely bro-
Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya ken apart," he said.
said the plane failed to As other passengers Rescue members and firefighters work after a plane skidded off the runway at Istanbul's Sabiha
"hold onto the runway" and emerged from the wreck- Gokcen Airport, Istanbul, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020.
skidded some 50-60 meters age, Bilgic said he helped Associated Press
(yards) before it dropped two or three to the ground.
into the ditch from a height "I carried them somewhere between and it was impos- a rough landing. The ac- plane with 164 people on
of about 30 meters (98 because they weren't do- sible. We thought 'God will- cident occurred after (the board skidded off the run-
feet.) ing as well as us," he said, ing, no one has died'." plane) could not deceler- way at the same airport
"We are deeply saddened then ran away from the Dozens of rescue crew ate and rammed into a in Istanbul. There were no
... (But) we are very happy plane with others, fearing a members swarmed around field from the end of the deaths or injuries in that in-
that we escaped a greater possible explosion. the flood-lit fuselage, in- runway," Turkey's state-run cident on Jan. 7.
accident," Yerlikaya said, "There was complete cha- cluding around the cock- Anadolu news agency In January 2018, another
adding that the plane os," he said. pit, which had flipped over. quoted Transportation Boeing 737 in the Pegasus
could have burst into Video obtained by The As- The plane was a Boeing 737 and Infrastructure Minister fleet slid off a runway at
flames. sociated Press showed the that was 11 years old, ac- Mehmet Cahit Turan as northeastern Turkey's Trab-
Health Minister Fahrettin wreckage of the plane cording to the flight track- saying. zon Airport and down a dirt
Koca reported that one in a field adjacent to the ing website Flightradar24. Prosecutors opened an embankment. The plane
person had died and 157 end of the runway. The vid- "We are aware of the me- investigation of the acci- came to rest in the dirt
injured people were taken eo shows heavy rain and dia reports and we are dent, Anadolu reported. above the Black Sea with
to multiple hospitals. Three strong winds at the time, gathering more informa- Pegasus is a privately- its nose pointed toward the
of the injured required sur- with smoke coming from tion," Peter Pedraza, a Boe- owned, low-cost carrier water. None of the 168 pas-
gery and two others were one of the engines as pas- ing spokesman, said. based in Istanbul that flies sengers and crew mem-
in intensive care, but none sengers climb out of the NTV said the injured in- 97 routes, mostly within bers were injured.
of their lives were thought fuselage onto the wings of cluded the plane's two Turkey and to destinations Planes are designed to ab-
to be in danger, he said. the plane and away from pilots, who it said were in in Europe, the Middle East sorb impact forces in the
The airport was shut down the crash site. serious condition. The tele- and Central Asia. It is major- bottom of the fuselage to
after the incident, which Eyewitness Hasan Eraydin, vision channe l broadcast ity owned by Turkish billion- improve the chances that
occurred at around 6:30 who shot the video, said a recording of the com- aire Sevket Sabanci and passengers in the cabin
p.m. local time (1530 GMT), he had been driving home munications between the his family, who have big in- above will survive.
and flights were diverted to from work when he heard a pilots and air traffic control vestments in the country in In 2013, the tail of an Asiana
Istanbul's main airport. rumble. in which the pilots are told areas as varied as real es- Airlines Boeing 777 broke
Survivor Dogus Bilgic, 24, "We were about 30 meters that previous flights had re- tate, clothing, health clubs off after the jet hit a sea-
told Turkish television chan- away … we tried to get to ported strong tail winds. and packaging materials. wall during approach to
nel NTV that he fled the the scene to help, but there "According to the informa- The accident comes a San Francisco International
smashed plane by way of a was some sort of a canal in tion we have, there was month after a Pegasus Airport.q