DAGARH, Senegal (AP) — A Boeing 737-300 with 85 people on board skidded off the runway at the airport in Senegal’s capital, injuring 10, according to the transport minister, an aviation safety team and footage from a passenger who showed up to the plane. on fire.
“Our plane just caught fire,” Malian musician Chek Siriman Sisoko wrote in a Facebook post that showed passengers jumping down emergency slides as flames engulfed one side of the plane at the airport in Dakar. People can be heard screaming in the background.
The Air Sénégal flight, operated by TransAir, was en route to Bamako in neighboring Mali late Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew on board, Transport Minister El Malik Ndiaye said. The airport, which was closed overnight, was reopened on Thursday morning.
The injured are being treated at the hospital while others have been taken to a hotel to rest. Boeing referred a request for comment to the airline.
AP reporter Karen Sammas reported on the plane that skidded off the runway in Senegal.
This is the third incident involving a Boeing aircraft this week. On Thursday, 190 people were safely evacuated from a plane in Turkey After one of its tires burst while landing at the southern airport, Turkey’s Ministry of Transport said.
The company has been under severe pressure since the door was inserted A Boeing 737 Max blasted off During an Alaska Airlines flight in January, there was a hole in the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration in February gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality problems after the crash and meet safety standards for building planes.
The incident raises scrutiny of Boeing to its highest level since two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. About a dozen Relatives of passengers Those who died in the second crash are urging the US government to renew criminal fraud charges against the company by determining that Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 agreement.
In April, a Boeing whistleblower, Sam Salepour, He testified at a congressional hearing The company has taken manufacturing shortcuts to quickly replace 787s, which can lead to jetliners breaking down.
The Aviation Safety Network, which monitors airline accidents, has identified the plane as a Boeing 737-38J. On X, formerly known as Twitter, the network posted photos of the damaged plane on the grass surrounded by fire-fighting foam. According to the photos, one engine was broken and one wing was damaged.
ASN is part of the Aviation Safety Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to promoting safe aviation and monitoring accidents.
