A Boeing 737-300 crashed during takeoff in Senegal, injuring 11 people, four of them seriously.
Air Senegal flight HC 301 bound for Bamako, the capital of Mali, ran off the runway in the early hours of Thursday, Dakar’s Blaise Diagne Airport said in a statement.
The pilot was slightly injured, but most of the 78 passengers on board were not injured in the incident.
Read also: A Boeing cargo plane landed in Istanbul without the front wheels (VIDEO)
Operations at the airport have since been suspended.
Emergency services at the airport were mobilized to evacuate the passengers, the airport statement said.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident.Boeing did not comment on the incident, nor did Transair, the private company from which Air Senegal leased the plane.
Security crisis
While it is not yet known what caused the accident, it comes as the manufacturer faces a deepening safety crisis.
An unused door fell from an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max in January shortly after takeoff from the US.
The company is facing a criminal investigation into that incident.
See also: The Boeing company, targeted by yet another investigation. Possibly falsified tests
The accident in Senegal comes as a former quality inspector at Boeing’s biggest supplier told the BBC that plane bodies regularly left the factory with serious defects.
The company where the former inspector worked, Spirit AeroSystems, said it “doesn’t agree at all” with the allegations.
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