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Three killed in hard landing of Turkish plane in Istanbul, number of injured rises to 179 (VIDEO) (UPDATE)

Türkiye Materials 6 February 2020 03:47 (UTC +04:00)
A passenger plane skidded off the runway at an airport in Istanbul on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring 179 others
Three killed in hard landing of Turkish plane in Istanbul, number of injured rises to 179 (VIDEO) (UPDATE)

A passenger plane skidded off the runway at an airport in Istanbul on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring 179 others, officials said, Trend reports citing Turkish media.

The Pegasus Airlines plane with flight number PC2193 was arriving from Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir at Sabiha Gokcen International Airport when it skidded off the runway while landing, said Turkey’s Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Cahit Turhan.

Three people died and 179 others were injured among the 177 passengers and six crew members, said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

Television footage showed the nose of the plane almost completely separated from the rest of the fuselage, which burst into flames following the crash.

"According to the information we obtained, after the hard landing, the plane drifted," said Turhan.

After skidding off the runway, the plane drifted around 50 meters (164 feet), said Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya.

"Then it fell from a height of around 30 meters [98 feet] here, where there is a connection road from the TEM highway to the E-5 highway."

Prosecutors in capital Ankara launched an investigation into the incident. The airport has been temporarily closed to air traffic.

Turkish Airlines also announced they have temporarily halted all flights to and from the airport.

00:22 (GMT+4) One person was killed as a result of the hard landing conducted by a plane of the Turkish Pegasus airline in Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, while the number of injured people climbed to 157, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

"Unfortunately, one of the passengers died, and 157 people were injured", Koca told reporters.

Turkish Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan previously said that no one was killed in the incident, and it was also reported that 139 people sustained injuries.

Earlier in the day, the aircraft, en route from Izmir to Istanbul with 183 people on board, overran the runway during landing in poor weather, caught fire and broke into three parts.

23:00 (GMT+4) At least 120 people have been injured in Wednesday’s crash landing of a passenger plane at Istanbul’s Sabiaha Gokcen airport, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya informed, Trend reports citing TASS.

"According to recent data, unfavorable weather conditions caused the crash. The plane crashed on the landing strip from the height of 30 meters. So far, 120 people have been taken to hospital," he said on Turkey’s NTV channel.

A Boeing 737-800 plane travelling from Izmir to Istanbul skidded off the runway earlier on Wednesday at Istanbul’s Sabiaha Gokcen airport, subsequently catching fire. There were 177 passengers and 6 crew on board the plane. All passengers and crew have been evacuated. There have been no reports of casualties.

21:15 (GMT+4) A Pegasus Airlines passenger jet flying in from the western city of İzmir veered off the runway after landing at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport Wednesday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

The Boeing 737-800’s fuselage broke in three and caught fire. Firefighters and ambulances were dispatched to the scene.

The plane was carrying 177 passengers and six crew members, according to Transportation Minister Cahit Turhan. He said that there were no fatalities but some passengers were injured. He said the accident was due to a "hard landing."

"Our teams are currently evacuating the passengers. There are no casualties so far, only injured ones," Turhan said.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said that 21 evacuees hospitalized for injuries. He later updated the figure for injuries as 52. There were 171 passengers aboard the plane, the governor said.

The airport, which serves much of Istanbul's Asian districts and nearby industrial hub cities as Bursa, Kocaeli and Sakarya, has been temporarily closed to air traffic. Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) announced that it was canceling all flights from and to the airport for the rest of the day.

Low-cost carrier Pegasus, the country's second-biggest airline, uses Sabiha Gokcen as its main hub. The airline said in a statement that the flight number PC2193 with registry number TC-IZK skidded off number without deaths and the injured were being transferred to hospitals.

Prosecutors in capital Ankara launched an investigation into the incident.

Strong southwestern winds and rainfall have been battering the city for much of the day.

On Jan. 7, another Pegasus 737-800 aircraft skidded off the runway in Sabiha Gokcen and stopped on top of a grass area between runways amid adverse weather conditions. No one was injured in that incident.

In January 2018, a Pegasus Boeing 737-800 slid down an embankment at Trabzon Airport on the Black Sea,and landed just meters from the water with its wheels stuck in thick mud.

After four days, the plane was eventually lifted back onto the runway with engineers using cranes. All 162 passengers and six crew were safely evacuated.

Pegasus, which has been flying for 20 years, has a fleet of 83 aircraft, including 47 Boeings and 36 Airbus planes.

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