Plane flips over, catches fire in crash-landing at Mogadishu airport

[Deeq A.]

A turboprop plane carrying 36 passengers and crew flipped on its back and caught fire after crash-landing Monday at the main airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, authorities said.

Images from the scene showed towers of black smoke billowing from the aircraft and into the sky as firefighters battled the blaze. Pieces of the plane, a Fokker-50 operated by Somalia’s domestic carrier, Jubba Airways, could also be seen strewn across the runway.

All 36 passengers and crew survived the crash, Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement, adding that an investigation into the incident was underway.

The plane was arriving in Mogadishu, which is located on the Indian Ocean, from the inland city of Baidoa and crashed around 11:30 a.m., according to a brief statement from Jubba Airways.

“We applaud the quick action of the Somalia fire brigade at the Adan Adde International Airport for their quick action in rescuing and saving lives,” a spokesman for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-country trade bloc that includes Somalia, told local media.

The airport is located inside a fortified enclave known as the “Green Zone,” which also houses some Western embassies, including the U.S. mission, and U.S.-trained Somali commando units. The last plane crash there was in 2020 when another Fokker-50 aircraft veered off the runway and collided with a perimeter wall. The plane’s four occupants survived.

The Dutch aerospace firm, Fokker, originally manufactured the Fokker-50 aircraft but halted production in 1996. The firm’s successor company, Fokker Services, continues to service and repair those Fokker-50 planes that are still in use. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington Post

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