Photo Credit:XinHua
In the early hours of Thursday, an Air Senegal passenger plane, chartered by privately-owned Transair, veered off the runway during takeoff at the Blaise Diagne International Airport in Senegal. The B737/300 aircraft was carrying 78 passengers and was headed for the Malian capital Bamako when the incident occurred. The airport, located 50 kilometers from the capital Dakar, was shut down for almost 12 hours, and 11 people were injured, with four of them being seriously hurt.The pilot was slightly injured, but most of the 78 passengers on board were not hurt in the incident.
Airport managers LAS, made up of Turkish group Limak, the publicly-owned airport operator AIBD, and another Turkish entity, Summa, released a statement saying that an emergency plan was triggered as soon as they were alerted. The airport emergency services were mobilized for the evacuation of passengers and their care, as per the plan.
The aircraft was immobilized away from the runway, and online images showed a large hole in the left engine and the wing covered in firefighting foam. The exact circumstances of the incident are yet to be determined, but an investigation is already underway to establish the reasons for the aircraft leaving the runway. Aviation specialists, along with representatives of the airline, are on site to examine closely the airline log data and interview crew members.
The airport at Diass was reopened shortly after midday, and airport operations resumed as normal, LAS stated. Six other passengers were taken for medical check-ups inside the airport, the group said.
Air Senegal has already endured months of criticism with passengers regularly complaining about delays to domestic and international flights. The state-owned entity began operating in May 2018 after emerging from the April 2016 collapse of Senegal Airlines. The launch of the carrier's latest incarnation is part of a three-stage 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, which bears the name of the first African lawmaker elected to the French Parliament (1872-1934), 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, including Sierra Leone's Freetown as well as Nouakchott, Banjul, and Conakry. According to its website, it carries some 90,000 passengers a year.
This incident comes after a Boeing 767 Fedex cargo plane landed at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear on Wednesday, with nobody getting hurt.
