Incredible Photos and Video of 737 That Overran Runway Into an Embankment Last Night

by Gary Leff

Yesterday’s Pegasus Airlines flight PC 8622 from Ankara to Trabzon on the coast of the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey overran the side of the runway on landing and wound up on an embankment.

The 5 year old Boeing 737-800 had 162 passengers and 6 crew onboard. It landed on runway 11 shortly before midnight Saturday night “but veered left off the runway, went down a slope and came to a stop on soft ground just short of the sea about 60 meters before the runway end and about 60 meters to the left of the left runway edge.”

The plane was evacuated, and everyone got out safely without injury. The aircraft, not so much. These photos may give the best sense of where the plane rested.

And another closer up:

Here’s video of emergency crews responding to the incident.

Here’s video of the plane on the ground.

Pegasus issued the following statement:

We’re sorry to report that the Boeing 737-800 type TC-CPF registered aircraft of Pegasus Airlines Flight Number PC 8622 Ankara-Trabzon flight scheduled at 18:25 UTC tonight, had a Runway Excursion Incident during landing at Trabzon Airport ( January 13, 2018). All 162 passengers, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew have been disembarked safely from the aircraft. There has been no loss of life or injury to anyone on-board.

They say any landing you walk away from is a good landing, and gratefully everyone made it off. We’ll have to wait for the investigation to determine whether it was runway conditions, pilot error in simply turning the wrong direction in the dark, failing to properly deploy landing procedures, or an equipment error — or as so often the case, some combination of factors.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. As you said, a landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.
    But a landing where you can use the plane again is an excellent landing.

  4. Evacuating at that angle must have been incredibly challenging. Excellent job by the crew for getting everyone off safely. Wow, they all lucked out here.

  5. Look at the tire tracks veering off the runway just ahead of the turning area. The aircraft had some speed still as it went off the tarmac. He would be going slow if turning, so a wrong turn seems unlikeky. Possibly a mechnical issue or a blown tire and then he veered to the left while braking hard – especially if conditions were poor.

  6. Hummm – if this were in the US, there would be 162 injuries! What was it that Shakespeare wrote about lawyers???

  7. @ paul c

    The remark was made by a character aptly named “Dick the Butcher” to foment rebellion: “He joins the rebellion for the joy of anarchy, a chance to kill lawyers and have his way with women. He enjoys killing.”

    Copyright ©2005-2017 by PlayShakespeare.com.
    Visit http://www.playshakespeare.com/license for details.

  8. I agree with paul c hahaahh it’s sad, but so true… Everyone would have their hand out for a check

  9. can’t believe they were able to evacuate without having the plane slide down the embankment more !!! lucky

  10. There shouldn’t be an airport there anyway. Move airports to flat areas where you don’t have such built-in hazards.

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