An accident involving a Boeing 737-300 left 10 people injured Thursday at Blaise Diagne Airport in Dakar, Senegal. The incident occurred when the plane was trying to land. At that moment, the plane suffered a problem with acceleration and, as a result, went off the runway, leaving shocking images that soon went viral on social media:
Transair Senegal Boeing 737-300 (6V-AJE, built 1994) was seriously damaged when it overran the landing runway at Dakar-Intl Airport(GOBD), Senegal. The left wing and engine caught fire but all 73 passengers were able to evacuate alive. There was unspecified number of injuries.… pic.twitter.com/SysgTSL3b8
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) May 9, 2024
As reported by the BBC, the incident, which occurred at 1 a.m., left 11 people injured, four of them seriously, who were traveling aboard the Air Senegal flight bound for Bamako, Mali. "Our plane just caught fire," one of the passengers, Malian musician Cheick Siriman Sisokko, wrote on Facebook. The post was accompanied by a video in which the device is seen on fire while the rest of the passengers try to get to safety:
One of the pilots of the Boeing 737 injured after the accident
Senegalese Transportation Minister El Malick Ndiaye reported that a total of 85 people were traveling aboard the Boeing 737-300, operated by Transair. Of them, 79 were passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.
One of the pilots is among the injured, although the severity of his condition is unknown. All the injured were taken to a hospital, while the rest of the passengers, Ndiaye said, went "to the hotel for rest and proper care."
𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲́ 𝗱𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲̀𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗲́𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘀.
Le vol HC301 d’Air Sénégal opéré par Transair a fait une sortie de piste au décollage de l’aéroport AIBD suite à une… pic.twitter.com/gOiysDFDOr
— El Malick NDIAYE (@elmaalignjaay) May 9, 2024
Following the accident, Blaise Diagne's airspace was closed and all flights to or from the Senegalese airport were canceled. However, after verifying that the space is safe, the Senegalese airport resumed its activity at 9:30 a.m., as reported on social media:
We inform you that the Blaise Diagne International Airport has reopened its doors. Airport operations have resumed normally.
Meanwhile, in his statement, Minister El Malick Ndiaye assured that he had ordered the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) to open "an investigation to determine the causes of the accident."
The event with this Boeing 737-300 occurred just a day after another of the airline's aircraft had a new technical problem in Turkey. On that occasion, the incident ended without injuries but with the plane, operated by FedEx, losing its two front wheels.
