A plane with 78 passengers on board skidded off the runway at Senegal’s main airport near the capital Dakar tonight. Eleven people were injured in the accident, four of them seriously, Blaise Diagne Airport said in a statement. Operations at the airport are suspended, Reuters reported.
An overnight video shared on social media, which Reuters has not yet been able to verify, shows a plane off the runway in the grass with a wing covered in fire-fighting foam.
Blaise Diagne Airport said there were 78 passengers on board. The reasons why the plane went off the runway are under investigation. The accident happened before take-off at 01:00 local time (03:00 CEST). The airport will be reopened in the following hours, Reuters reports.
Some media added that it was a Transair Boeing 737-38J aircraft. The airline is based at Blaise Diagne Airport and operates domestic flights and international routes within West Africa.