DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Boeing 737 carrying 85 people skidded off the runway at the airport in Dakar, Senegal’s capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transportation minister and footage from a passenger showed the plane in flames.
“Our plane just caught fire,” Malian musician Cheikh Sirimane Sissoko wrote in a Facebook post showing passengers jumping the emergency slide at night as flames engulfed one side of the plane. In the background, people can be heard screaming.
Transport Minister Malek Ndiaye said the Air Senegal flight operated by Transair was bound for Bamako in neighboring Mali late Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four crew members on board.
The injured are receiving treatment in hospital, while the others were transferred to a hotel to rest.
No other details were immediately available. Boeing did not respond to a request for comment.
The Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation accidents, posted photos of the damaged plane in a grassy field surrounded by fire suppression foam on X, formerly known as Twitter. It appears that one of the engines has been destroyed, and one of the wings has been damaged, according to the pictures.
ASN is part of the Aviation Safety Foundation, a non-profit group aimed at promoting safe air travel and tracking accidents.
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