DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Boeing 737-300 carrying 85 people skidded off the runway at the airport in Senegal’s capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transportation minister and an aviation safety group and footage from a passenger showed the plane could not be stopped.
“Our plane just caught fire,” Malian musician Cheikh Sirimane Sissoko wrote in a Facebook post showing passengers jumping emergency slides at night as flames engulfed one side of the plane at Dakar airport. In the background, people can be heard screaming.
Transport Minister Malek Ndiaye said the Air Senegal flight operated by Transair was bound for Bamako in neighboring Mali late Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four crew members on board. The airport reopened Thursday morning after being closed overnight.
The injured are receiving treatment in hospital, while the others were transferred to a hotel to rest. Boeing referred a request for comment to the airlines.
AP reporter Karen Shammas reports on a plane that skidded off the runway in Senegal.
This is the third accident involving a Boeing plane this week. Also on Thursday, 190 people were safely evacuated from a plane in Türkiye After one of its tires exploded The Turkish Ministry of Transport said, while landing at an airport in the south of the country.
The company has been under intense pressure since the door was closed Exploded from a Boeing 737 MAX plane During an Alaska Airlines flight in January, it left a large hole in the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration in February gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality problems and meet safety standards for building the planes after the accident.
The crash raised scrutiny of Boeing to the highest level since two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. About a dozen Relatives of passengers Those who died in the second crash were pressing the US government to revive a criminal fraud charge against the company by determining that Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 settlement.
In April, Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour… He testified at a congressional hearing That the company had taken manufacturing shortcuts to build the 787s as quickly as possible could result in the planes being dismantled.
The Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation accidents, described the plane as a Boeing 737-38G. The network published pictures of the damaged plane in a grassy field, surrounded by fire suppression foam, on the X website, formerly known as Twitter. It appears that one of the engines has been destroyed, and one of the wings has been damaged, according to the pictures.
ASN is part of the Aviation Safety Foundation, a non-profit group aimed at promoting safe air travel and tracking accidents.
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