A Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 split into three pieces after it over-ran the runway at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW/LTFJ) on February 6th, 2020. The Boeing 737 registered TC-IZK, was completing its flight from Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport (ADB/LTBJ) with call sign PC-2193. The aircraft landed on Runway 06 at SAW, but it overran the wet runway and came to a halt in an embankment, splitting in three.
The front portion of the aircraft initially broke off and landed upside down whereas the rear end of the 737 caught fire upon coming to a halt, but the flames were soon doused. The aircraft touched down about 1.950 meters past the runway threshold with about another 1000 meters remaining until the end but was unable to stop in time and overran the runway at 65 knots.
There were 177 passengers and 6 crew on-board the Boeing 737-800 and all 183 were injured and taken to 18 nearby hospitals where unfortunately three people passed away. The airline has not released a statement on whether the three casualties were passengers or crew. In its initial report, Pegasus reported that there were no casualties; however, three casualties were later confirmed.
Ali Yerlikaya, the Governor of Istanbul said “The plane could not hold on the runway due to poor weather conditions and skidded for around 50 to 60 meters.”
Investigations have begun at Istanbul to determine the reason for this accident. The pilots are being investigated, their phones have been confiscated, and the ATC recordings are being reviewed as well. This is the second runway excursion case of Pegasus this year. On January 7th, 2020, another Pegasus Boeing 737-800 over-ran Runway 06 at Sabiha Gökçen, but the aircraft came to a stop with all landing gears on soft ground, so there were no casualties in the accident earlier this year.
.jpg)
Comments