Boeing 737 skids off runway in Senegal airport, injuring 10 people

DAKAR: A Boeing 737 plane carrying 85 people skidded off the runway before takeoff at the airport in Dakar, Senegal's capital, injuring 10 people, a statement from the country’s transport minister said in a statement on Thursday (May 9).

El Malick Ndiaye, the transport minister, said the Air Sénégal flight operated by TransAir was headed to Bamako late on Wednesday carrying 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.

The injured were being treated in hospital, while the other survivors have been taken to a hotel to rest.

Night-time videos shared on social media showed passengers running away from a plane whose left wing appeared to be on fire. The aircraft was at a standstill in long grass and had deployed its emergency slides as smoke billowed into the sky.

Reuters reporters at the airport later on Thursday saw a plane with the Transair logo in the grass by the runway, cordoned off with red and white tape.

The airport was closed immediately after the accident, but had reopened as of around 1100 GMT, the airport said in an online post.

“Our plane just caught fire,” wrote Malian musician Cheick Siriman Sissoko in a post on Facebook that showed passengers jumping down the emergency slides at night as flames engulfed one side of the aircraft. In the background, people can be heard screaming.

INVESTIGATION INTO ACCIDENT UNDERWAY

The Aviation Safety Network, which tracks airline accidents, published photos of the damaged plane in a grassy field surrounded by fire suppressant foam on X, formerly known as Twitter. One engine appeared to have broken apart and a wing was also damaged, according to the photos.

"The exact circumstances of the incident remain to be determined, but an investigation is already under way to establish the reasons" why the aircraft left the runway.

"Aviation specialists along with representatives of the airline concerned are on site to examine closely the airline log data and interview crew members," LAS said.

The transport ministry said the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis had opened an inquiry to determine the cause of the accident.

It comes as Air Senegal faces criticism with passengers regularly complaining about delays to domestic and international flights.

US manufacturer Boeing is also mired in problems, including safety concerns after two 737 MAX crashes within five months and another scare involving the aircraft over Alaska in January.

Thursday's incident comes a day after a Boeing 767 Fedex cargo plane touched down at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear which failed to open, though nobody was hurt, the US Federal Aviation administration said.

State-owned Air Senegal began operating in May 2018 after emerging from the April 2016 collapse of Senegal Airlines.

The latter had itself replaced in 2009 Air Senegal International, in which Senegal and Morocco had stakes.

The launch of the carrier's latest incarnation is part of a plan to turn Dakar into a regional air hub around the international airport, inaugurated in December 2017, and revamped provincial airports.

The Blaise Diagne airport at Diass is named for the first African lawmaker elected to the French parliament in 1872 until 1934.

It replaces the Leopold-Sedar-Senghor International Airport (AILSS) in the suburbs of the capital which has been converted into a military facility.

Transair, founded in 2010, is based at Blaise Diagne and serves a dozen destinations across West Africa.