Eleven people were injured Thursday, May 9, including four seriously, during the takeoff of a Boeing chartered by the company Air Senegal, which left the runway, leading to a temporary closure of Diass international airport, near Dakar, announced the LAS manager. The B737/300 type plane, chartered from a private company, Transair, leaving for Bamako, and which was carrying 78 passengers “exited the runway during its take-off phase this Thursday, May 9 around 1 a.m. morning,” said the airport management group’s communications department in a press release.
The aircraft “came to rest” off the runway explains LAS in the press release. “The emergency plan was triggered by the airport authorities as soon as the information was communicated to them. Thus, all the airport’s emergency services were mobilized for the evacuation of passengers and their care as planned.
“An investigation is already underway to establish the causes of the departure from the track”
The manager further indicated that “the exact circumstances of the incident remain to be determined, but an investigation is already underway to establish the causes of the runway excursion.” “Aviation specialists, as well as representatives of the relevant airline [Air Sénégal]are on site to closely examine the flight data and interview the crew members,” he added.
The company criticized
This incident occurs while the company Air Senegal has, for several months, been the target of criticism about the quality of its service. Passengers are regularly offended by delays experienced by domestic and international flights of the company controlled by the Senegalese state and which began its air services in May 2018.
For its part, Boeing is also going through a difficult time after several incidents, including two this week, and the launch of an investigation targeting three of its commercial aircraft models by the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA). . On Tuesday, an Air France 787-900 which was operating a Paris-Seattle flight was diverted to a Canadian airport following “the appearance of a hot smell felt in the cabin”. Then, on Wednesday, a Boeing 767 freighter from the Fedex company landed on its fuselage at Istanbul airport, its front landing gear not having opened. The spectacular incident, however, did not cause any casualties.
