Caspian Airlines Plane Overshoots Runway, Makes Botched Landing on Iranian Highway
A Caspian Airlines plane botched its landing and skidded off the runway and onto a highway in Iran, snarling traffic and prompting the immediate evacuation of everyone on board.
There were no fatalities, but two of the 136 people on the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft were left with leg injuries following the incident Monday afternoon, medics told BBC News.
The aircraft had been traveling from Tehran when it overshot its landing at an airport in the city of Mahshahr, according to state TV. Managing Director of Khuzestan Airports Mohammad Reza Rezaei told IRNA that the pilot landed too late and ultimately missed his landing spot.
He added that a technical difficulty “caused the aircraft to overshoot the runway and stop in a boulevard” near the airport.
The plane, built in 1994, landed on its belly on the road and did not burst into flames amid the chaos.
Clips shared on social media, reportedly from the scene, show a stream of passengers evacuating the plane as it sits in the middle of the highway. They can be seen in bystander videos walking along the plane’s wing to escape the downed aircraft.
Airlines in Iran have weathered a fair number of crashes in recent years, which local leaders blame on U.S. sanctions blocking the airlines from replacing their ageing fleets and purchasing spare parts in the West, CNBC reported.
Most recently, an Iranian plane traveling from Tehran to Istanbul made an emergency landing on Saturday due to a technical problem. And in February 2019, 66 people were killed when an Aseman Airlines plane flying to Tehran crashed in the Zagros mountains in Iran.
Dozen more were killed in a 2011 crash, when an IranAir plane broke into pieces upon its landing.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said an investigation into Monday’s incident is underway.
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