Turkish passenger plane stuck on cliff after sliding off runway

The Pegasus airlines flight was carrying 162 passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants landing to Turkey's Trabzon. No injuries were reported.

The Pegasus Airlines flight had taken off from the capital Ankara and was landing at the city of Trabzon.
Reuters

The Pegasus Airlines flight had taken off from the capital Ankara and was landing at the city of Trabzon.

A plane with 168 people aboard skidded off a runway onto a seaside cliff after landing at an airport in northern Turkey at the weekend, but no one was injured in what one passenger called a "miracle".

The Pegasus Airlines flight had taken off smoothly from the capital Ankara bound for Trabzon, where the accident occurred as the plane was landing late Saturday.

"There was panic, people shouting, screaming," one of the passengers, Fatma Gordu, told state-run Anadolu news agency.

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

Gordu said it was a "miracle" they were saved. "We could have burned, it could have exploded, we could have fallen into the sea... Every time I think about it, I feel I might go crazy," she said.

TRT World's Christine Pirovolakis reports,

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Images from the Dogan news agency showed smoke emanating from the trapped plane and an engine that appeared to have fallen into the water.

Pegasus Airlines confirmed in a statement Sunday there were no injuries among the 162 passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants.

The cause of the incident was unknown but an investigation is underway, the Trabzon governor's office said.

The Trabzon public prosecutor has launched a separate criminal probe.

The airport was temporarily shut before reopening early Sunday, while an operation to remove the plane was continuing.

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