All 55 people on board a passenger plane were safely evacuated after the aircraft overran the runway and ended up in shallow waters during an emergency landing in Somalia.
No one was injured in the incident which happened near the country’s main airport on Tuesday, Febuary 10.
The Starsky Aviation aircraft had taken off from Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport and was bound for the northern city of Gaalkacyo when it developed a technical problem about 15 minutes into its flight.
The pilot then turned back and made an emergency landing, but he overshot the tarmac, veered off, and finished at the shoreline of a beach in the Indian Ocean.
All 50 passengers and five crew members safely left the plane, a Fokker 50.
Everyone on board was accounted for by a rescue team, transportation minister Mohamed Farah Nuh said.
The aircraft was damaged and the cause of the crash will be investigated.
Pictures showed the plane with at least one wing snapped but otherwise intact on the shoreline.
Starsky Aviation chief executive Ahmed Nur said “the aircraft overran on the runway” before coming to a rest on the shore of the Indian Ocean near the airport.
He added: “No injuries, no deaths.”
The Somali Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that at 1.17pm local time (10.17am UK time) “an aircraft with registration number 60-YAS, an F50, was involved in a runway overrun at Mogadishu Aden Abdulle International Airport”.
“The aircraft was carrying 55 people on board. All occupants survived the incident and were promptly transported to a nearby hospital for medical evaluation and care.
“No fatalities have been reported.”
