Boeing 737 skids off runway in Senegal, injuring 10 people

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Boeing 737 plane carrying 85 people skidded off a runway at the airport in Dakar, Senegal’s capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transport minister, an airline safety group and footage from a passenger that showed the aircraft on fire.

“Our plane just caught fire,” wrote Malian musician Cheick Siriman Sissoko in a post on Facebook that showed passengers jumping down the emergency slides at night as flames engulfed one side of the aircraft. In the background, people can be heard screaming.

Transport Minister El Malick Ndiaye said the Air Sénégal flight operated by TransAir was headed to Bamako, in neighboring Mali, late Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.

The injured were being treated at a hospital, while the others were taken to a hotel to rest.

No other details were immediately available. Boeing did not respond to a request for comment.

The nonprofit group Aviation Safety Network, which tracks airline accidents, described the plane as a Boeing 737. The network published photos of the damaged plane in a grassy field, surrounded by fire suppressant foam, on X, formerly known as Twitter. One engine appeared to have broken apart and a wing was also damaged, according to the photos.

It was the second high-profile incident involving a Boeing aircraft in less than 24 hours. A Boeing 767 cargo plane belonging to FedEx Express landed nose-down on a Turkish runway early Wednesday after its landing gear failed to open on approach.

It’s unclear why the failure occurred. Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is investigating.

In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday announced another probe into Boeing’s operations, this one focused on 787 Dreamliner inspections, according to CNN.