Security cameras captured the terrifying moment a plane skidded off a runway in Mogadishu, Somalia. The aircraft crashed into a nearby fence after sliding off the runway as it touched down, but there were no fatalities and only two minor injuries. The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) said a preliminary report into the incident will be released when inquiries are concluded. The Halla Airlines flight was carrying 30 passengers and four crew members and crashed on arrival at the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu on July 11.
The airport was the scene of a similar incident last year when a plane flipped over while coming into land. The Jubba Airways flight arrived from the city of Baidoa with 36 passengers on board when it turned on its head and erupted into flames. Miraculously, there were no fatalities on that occasion either.
Air accidents are relatively rare on the African continent and the worst occurrence in recent years took place in Algeria in 2018, when 257 people were killed. The plane was carrying military personnel and their family members when its wing caught fire just after take-off. The pilot attempted to conduct an emergency landing but lost control of the plane, resulting in the worst aircraft disaster in the nation’s history.
The deadliest day in the history of American aviation remains the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, but fewer people likely remember a major disaster that occurred only months later. On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and crashed soon afterward into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York City, killing 265 people.
While officials initially feared another terror attack, a subsequent investigation found that pilots had conducted too many maneuvers in response to turbulence, placing excessive strain on the tail, which then broke away from the plane and fell into Rockaway Bay.
