A plane in Istanbul skidded off the runway causing it to split into three and catching on fire killing three people and injuring several others.
The incident occurred on Wednesday while the plane was landing at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport coming in from Aegean Port City of Izmir.
The plane was a Boeing 737 which belonged to Turkish low cost carrier Pegasus Airlines and was carrying 183 people in total out of which six were crew members.
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The incident caused the death of three people while 179 people were injured and sent to different hospitals.
Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya said that the plane skidded up to 60 meters after landing and fell about 40 meters down a ditch.
Unfortunately, the Pegasus Airlines plane couldn’t hold on the runway due to poor weather conditions and skidded for around 50-60m.
Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya
The airport was later closed for all air traffic because of the rough weather condition that resulted in the incident in the first place. However, it has since been reopened.
Reports say that most passengers on board were Turkish with 22 foreign passengers belonging to 12 different countries.
There were also a small number of children on board the plane.
Several other videos of the incident showed passengers climbing out from the cracked plane in order to escape.
This is the second incident this month involving a Pegasus Airline flight. Just last month a plane belonging to the carrier skidded off the runway at the same airport. The plane was carrying 164 people and there were no injuries or loss of life on that occasion.
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