Senegal, Africa

A Boeing 737-300 crashed during takeoff in Senegal on Thursday (May 9), injuring 11 passengers. Four of the 11 had serious injuries. Six additional passengers were escorted inside the airport for medical checks.

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The Air Senegal aircraft HC 301, which was headed for Bamako, the capital of Mali, veered off the runway, according to a statement from Dakar's Blaise Diagne airport in the morning.

The pilot had suffered minor injuries, while the majority of the 78 people on board were unharmed.

"We inform you that Blaise Diagne international airport has reopened. Airport operations have resumed as normal," said LAS, which is made up of the Turkish business Limak, the publicly owned airport operator AIBD, and another Turkish entity, Summa.

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The airport's operations were paused, and emergency services were brought in to evacuate passengers, according to a statement.

According to LAS, the Diass airport, located 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Dakar, reopened shortly after midday.

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"We inform you that Blaise Diagne international airport has reopened. Airport operations have resumed as normal," LAS said.

Also read: Investigation initiated following Boeing cargo plane's landing mishap in Istanbul

"All the airport emergency services have been mobilised for the evacuation of passengers and their care, as per the plan," LAS added.

The event happened at roughly 1:00 GMT, and an investigation is being conducted to find out the reason behind it.

Transair, the private business that leased the aircraft to Air Senegal, has not commented on the incident. Boeing also has not released an official statement about the incident.

Though the reason for the incident is unknown, it comes at a time when the manufacturer's safety record is under scrutiny.

This incident came a day after a Boeing 767 FedEx cargo plane touched down at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear deployed, which did not open.

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In January, an unused door broke off of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff in the United States. The company is under criminal investigation for that incident.

(With inputs from agencies)