A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 jet skids off runway, and everyone on board the plane survived as it landed through dense fog, Wednesday, around 7 a.m. at Nepal's lone international airport. After the jet skids off runway, 40 arriving and 40 departing flights at Kathmandu, Nepal, were forced to cancel because the immobile plane covered almost a section of the runway, according to authorities.
Turkish Airlines Flight TK726 came from Istanbul, carrying 224 passengers and 11 crew members. Apparently, before the jet skids off runway, the jet already aborted one landing, spending 30 minutes going around the airport before it attempted to once again land in "extremely low" visibility, according to passenger Dikesh Malhotra.
"It was just going around in circles," added Malhotra. "We knew the runway was close but we couldn't see anything."
The jet skids off runway before it reaced to a halt near the fire station at Tribhuvan International Airport, reported the Hindustan Times.
The airport is the only place foreigners who want to explore Mount Everest and other nearby peaks in the Himalayan Mountains could get in, according to CNN.
The moment the jet skids off runway has been captured on video, and the footage shows passengers using the plane's emergency inflatable slides in order to leave the aircraft while it was positioned nose-down on grass.
There were no serious injuries by any of the passengers and crew on board. According to a Turkish Airlines spokesman, there were only one passenger of the 224 people who suffered from bumps and bruises despite the incident. The injured person was sent to the hospital immediately, reported NBC News.
"All of our passengers and crew have been safely evacuated and taken to the terminal," according to Turkish Airlines spokesman Ali Genc said in a statement after the jet skids off runway. "Necessary precautions have been taken for towing the aircraft out of its current place and the relevant work on that issue have started."
Genc added that an investigation will be looking into the exact root of the incident.
The plane had been trying to land in dense fog and the runway had already become slippery after two days of rainy weather, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
According to airport spokesman Purna Prasad Chudal, the pilot on board the plane overshot the airstrip after originally trying to land. The pilot's second attempt was reportedly what sent the plane skidding off the tarmac.
"As it was about to land on the second time, there was fog again and the pilots had trouble making a smooth landing," said Sunil Thapa, a Turkish Airlines official.
"As the plane approached, it somehow missed the runway and ended up in the grassland area," added the airport's general manager, Birendra Prasad Shrestha.
All passengers safe but some were given medical attention after evacuation #TK726 https://t.co/ABSdSRXqMx pic.twitter.com/rLMAep6NYc
— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) March 4, 2015
Plane crash at Kathmandu. Passengers safe. #turkishairlines pic.twitter.com/mAujyyCZyp — Neil Nepal (@neilpande) March 4, 2015
According to The Hindustan Times, government officials announced last year that they had plans to install new radar and weather monitoring systems. The announcement came after a sequence of crashes as well as the European Union's decision by to blacklist all Nepalese airlines.
The Turkish Airlines jet that skidded off the Tribhuvan International Airport runway may not be much of a surprise any longer as the airport "has one of the world's most complicated landing approaches due to surrounding challenging terrain at its location in the Himalayas," according to aircraft manufacturer Airbus in a 2013 news release.
Evacuation of #TurkishAirlines Flight #TK726 in Kathmandu.
A video posted by Peter Lübeck (@peterlubeck) on Mar 3, 2015 at 10:35pm PST
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