Saturday night brought yet another serious incident: a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 (registration TC-CPF) performing flight 8622 from Ankara, Turkey (ESB), to Trabzon, Turkey (TZX), veered off the runway on landing and slid down an embankment. All 162 passengers and six crew survived the crash, with only three passengers taken to a hospital for their injuries.
The German-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC) provided the following preliminary illustration of the accident site:
From skid marks on the runway and tire marks in the grass, it seems the landing was rather unremarkable until the plane took a sharp left turn just before the resulting accident site. The plane remained almost fully intact from the crash, with only the right engine breaking off from the aircraft and tumbling into the Black Sea.
The fact that the aircraft remained intact surely contributed to the fact that there were no serious injuries. Aerial footage shows the results of the crash:
While investigators are looking into exactly what went wrong, it doesn't seem to be the result of winds affecting the landing. Airport weather conditions noted just a 1 knot (1.15mph) wind around the time of the crash.
While the crashed aircraft remains on site, the Trabzon Airport was reopened early Sunday morning with the first arrival landing at 10:28am local time. In a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), pilots have been informed that the wrecked 737 may remain onsite until January 29.
