Melody Teh
Travel Trouble

"People screaming" – plane scarily hangs on edge of cliff

A plane with 162 passengers on board has skidded off a runway just metres away from toppling over a cliff into the sea as it landed at an airport in northern Turkey.

The Pegasus Airlines flight took off smoothly from Turkish capital Ankara but as it landed in Trabzont the plane skidded off the runway.

No one was injured or killed in the landing.

Dramatic images from CNN Turk broadcaster show the plane precariously hanging off a cliff several metres from the Black Sea.

Pegasus Airlines confirmed in a statement on Sunday there were no injuries and the 162 passengers as well as two pilots and four cabin crew were evacuated safely.

An investigation is under way to find the cause of the incident, the Trabzon governor’s office said.

Fatma Gordu, one of the passengers on board, described the panic on-board during the landing.

 “We tilted to the side, the front was down while the plane’s rear was up. There was panic; people shouting, screaming,” she told state-run news agency Anadolu.

“When they told us to leave from the rear exit, everyone tried to push ahead of everyone else. It was a terrible situation.”

She said the passengers could smell fuel and feared that a fire would break out.

“That is why we were scared,” she said, adding that there were pregnant women and children on board.

The airport was temporarily shut before reopening on Sunday.

 

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