A plane has had a huge hole torn into its fuselage after being blown off course by strong winds as it landed on the tourist island of Majorca.
The Air Europe flight from the south-eastern Spanish city of Valencia was carrying 60 passengers when the incident happened at the Palma de Mallorca Airport on the Spanish Balearic island.
Local media report it is believed the ATR72 plane owned by Swiftair and operated by Air Europa was blown off its path as it came into land in Majorca by severe weather conditions.
The pilot could not keep control of the plane as it landed and ended up crashing into a marker light on the runway, according to reports.
Passenger Hugo Rodriguez said passengers panicked when they heard the horrific sound of the plane crashing into the marker light.
He said: “It was only a second but we did not know if the plane was going to be able to get back on track. The pilot told us nothing, We all wanted an explanation.”
A startling image taken after the incident shows the internal workings of the plane visible through the large hole in the fuselage.
Cabin crew are said to have tried to calm the passengers down but they became even more alarmed to see airport fire engines and ambulances racing across the runway with blue lights flashing to surround the plane, according to reports.
The plane was reportedly brought under control and eventually came to a halt in its scheduled position, allowing passengers to disembark as normal.
Nobody was injured in the incident, although one female passengers is said to have walked into the airport terminal building shouting that she would never fly on another plane as long as she lived.
Some of the passengers on the plane were reportedly concerned they had been due to fly back to Valencia on the same plane, but it was replaced by a Boeing 737, according to local media.
An Air Europa spokesman said technicians were checking the plane to repair the damage and to see whether a fault might have caused the accident.
Swiftair, which is based in the Spanish capital city of Madrid, has a record of accidents involving its planes.
In October 1994, an aircraft had to be written off after the crew forgot to lower the landing gear as the plane arrived in Madrid.
In May 1995, another plane was damaged beyond repair in a botched landing at Vitoria airport in Spain. In January 2012, a Swiftair plane sustained substantial damage during a bad landing at Kandahar.
On 24th July 2014, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by the company for Algerian airline Air Algerie disappeared off radar 50 minutes after takeoff and crashed in Gossi, Mali, killing all 116 people on board.
And on 18th January 2016, an Embraer 120 freighter plane hit runway lights at Amsterdam Schiphol airport while taking off for a flight to London Stansted.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
