A Boeing 737 skidded off a runway at an airport in Senegal’s capital, injuring at least 11 people and grounding all operations while crew assisted with an evacuation of the aircraft.
The Air Senegal flight operated by TransAir was set to take off from the Blaise Diagne airport in the country’s capital Dakar and fly to the city of Bamako in Mali on Wednesday around midnight when the plane "came off the runway during its take-off phase," Senegal Transport Minister El Malick Ndiaye told reporters.
The plane skidded into the grass that flanked the runway, where crew were able to deploy the side exit ramps and ferry passengers off the plane as it started to burn.
"Our plane just caught fire at Blaise Diagne airport," Cheick Siriman Sissoko, a Malian musician, wrote in a post on Facebook along with a video of rescue crews helping passengers evacuate the plane. An orange glow is visible under the jet.
The plane was carrying 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, according to Ndiaye. The airport has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the accident, The Independent reported.
"Carriers operate and maintain their airplanes for upwards of 30 to 40 years," Boeing said in a statement to FOX Business, referring to TransAir for further questions but assuring that the company "will provide any requested support to our customers."
The plane in question was first delivered 30 years ago to Romanian company TAROM before TransAir leased it starting this year, according to Plane Spotters. The plane had previously suffered a tail issue during takeoff but returned to service a month later.
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Boeing has suffered severe media bruising over the past few months after several incidents have drawn heavy scrutiny, including one in which a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight blew out mid-flight in January.
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Just this week, a FedEx jet was forced to land without deploying its front landing gear. In that case, the pilots managed to keep the plane on the runway.
FedEx said in a statement to Reuters that it was coordinating with the investigation and would "provide additional information as it is available."
Family members of victims who have died in Boeing-related incidents have started to demand accountability for past incidents, such as the case of Nadia Milleron, whose daughter died in a 2019 Boeing crash, arguing that "executives made these decisions, and they have to be personally accountable."
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"They should be prosecuted, the executives personally, because that is what makes behavior change in Boeing. People have to face...their decisions," Nadia Milleron said on "Fox & Friends" last month.
FOX Business’ Breck Dumas, Lawrence Richard and Madeline Coggins contributed to this report.
