Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-86J plane crash
Istanbul, Turkey
Updated on
The Boeing 737-800 operated by Pegasus took off from Izmir, Turkey, for a passenger flight to Istanbul, Turkey. 177 passengers and 6 crewmembers were onboard. The plane landed at Istanbul airport but overran the end of the runway, impacted the airport perimeter wall and broke into three parts about 170 meters (550 feet) past the runway end. Three passengers died, 179 people were taken to hospitals with injuries. The aircraft is damaged beyond repair.
At the time the flight arrived in the vicinity of Istanbul Airport, a thunderstorm was building-up. Runway in use was 06. Two minutes before Boeing 737 arrived, the air traffic controllers cleared another flight for takeoff from runway 06, reporting wind 300 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 21 knots. The subsequent arrival was the Pegasus Boeing 737, which was cleared to land with wind information given as 270 degrees at 22 knots, gusting to 30 knots. This translates to a 19 knots tailwind. The Boeing 737 touched down at about two third of the runway length (well further than where it should have touched down), and failed to come to a complete stop on the runway. It exited the runway at more than 60 knots (110 km/h) and broke in three after the impact with the airport perimeter wall. An engine, that had separated, caught fire but was quickly extinguished by rescuers.
Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen Airport runway 06 is a concrete runway with a Landing Distance Available (LDA) of 3000 m. At the runway end there is a 65 m long stopway, followed by antenna array, perimeter road and a downslope. The aircraft came to a stop in the downslope, 20 m below runway elevation.
