Source: AFP
A Boeing passenger jet skidded off the runway during takeoff from Dakar’s international airport early Thursday, injuring 11 people and shutting down the hub for nearly 12 hours, its operator said.
The Air Senegal flight was bound for the Malian capital Bamako and had 78 passengers on board, the airport’s management company, LAS, said in a statement.
Images taken overnight and published by local media and on social media showed the plane in an overgrown area with first responders surrounding a casualty.
Smoke and flames are also visible near the aircraft.
The Boeing 737/300 had been chartered by privately held Transair, LAS said.
The jet “went off the runway during the takeoff phase” around 1:00 a.m. (01:00 GMT), he said.
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Eleven people were injured, four of them seriously. Another six passengers were taken for medical examination inside the airport.
The transport ministry said in a separate statement that two pilots and four cabin crew were on board.
He gave slightly different numbers saying there were 79 passengers and 10 injured, including a pilot.
Blaise Diagne Airport in Diass, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Senegalese capital Dakar, reopened shortly after noon, its operator later announced.
“We inform you that Blaise Diagne International Airport has reopened,” said LAS, which is made up of Turkey’s Limak Group, state airport operator AIBD and another Turkish entity, Summa.
“Airport operations have resumed as normal.”
The aircraft “came to rest” short of the runway and an emergency plan was activated by airport authorities as soon as they were notified, the group said.
“All airport emergency services have been mobilized to evacuate passengers and care for them in accordance with the plan,” LAS continued.
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Investigation underway
“The exact circumstances of the incident remain to be determined, but an investigation is already underway to determine the reasons” why the aircraft left the runway.
“Aviation experts along with representatives of the airline concerned are on site to scrutinize the airline’s logbook data and interview crew members,” LAS said.
The transportation ministry said the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
It comes as Air Senegal faces criticism with passengers regularly complaining about delays on domestic and international flights.
US manufacturer Boeing is also mired in problems, including safety concerns after two 737 MAX crashes in five months and another scare involving the plane over Alaska in January.
Thursday’s incident comes a day after a Boeing 767 FedEx cargo plane crashed at Istanbul Airport without the front landing gear deployed, although no one was injured, the US Federal Aviation Administration said.
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State-owned Air Senegal began operations in May 2018 after emerging from the collapse of Senegal Airlines in April 2016.
The latter had itself replaced Air Senegal International in 2009, in which Senegal and Morocco had shares.
The launch of the latest incarnation of the carrier is part of a plan to transform Dakar into a regional aviation hub around the international airport, which opened in December 2017, and the revamped provincial airports.
Blaise Diagne Airport in Diass is named after the first African MP elected to the French Parliament from 1872 to 1934.
It replaces the Leopold-Sedar-Senghor International Airport (AILSS) on the outskirts of the capital which has been converted into a military installation.
Founded in 2010, Transair is based in Blaise Diagne and serves twelve destinations across West Africa.
Source: AFP