by Nurat Uthman
A plane has skidded off the runway of Senegal’s main airport causing injuries to 11 people, four of whom are in a serious condition.
Flights have been suspended near the capital Dakar after the plane went into the grass before take-off during the early hours of Thursday, a spokesperson for the main airport Blaise Diagne said.
Dramatic footage on social media shows the plane with the logo of Senegal-based airline Transair standing on the ground with fire-suppressing foam covering the wing.
Local reports suggest the plane is a Boeing 737-300 carrying 78 passengers and that wing caught fire, although this is unconfirmed at this point.
The airline is based in Blaise Diagne airport and operates domestic flights and international routes within West Africa.
It comes just one day after a Boeing cargo plane belonging to the US mail service FedEx crash-landed on its nose in Istanbul.
Sparks were seen flying up the runway after the pilots of the 767 aircraft realised that their front landing gear had failed.
The flight had taken off from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle when the pilot realised the malfunction, with firefighters and rescue teams waiting on the runway to immediately douse it with firefighting foam.
