Passengers and crew on an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft this morning survived and accident at Entebbe Airport, when their aircraft reportedly overshot the runway during landing.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737 -800 according the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) overshot the airport’s main runway.
The incident, the authority says happened early Thursday morning, and that it “mainly affected inbound international flights.”
“All the 139 passengers on board disembarked safely,” The Authority said.
Ethiopian Airiness in a different statement however, said the Flight Number ET- 338 which was coming in from Addis Ababa “skidded off the runway by a few meters.”
It remains unclear whether the accident was caused by the flight crew (miss-timing the 3,658 meter runway or the aircraft actually slid off the runway.
The airline company, the biggest and most profitable on the continent, added in the statement that the aircraft was not damaged and that all passengers were “safely deplaned and cleared normally through the regular clearing process.
“We apologize to our valued customers who were upon board the flight the inconvenience,” the company stated.
“An alternative flight is being arranged to complete the return flight and rebook the passengers who were booked to travel from Entebbe to Addis Ababa.”
This is the first incident of the kind in almost a year at the country’s only international airport.
In February last year there was an emergency evacuation after an Aerolink Airline aircraft had one of its tyres burst upon touch down. There were no injuries in the same incident registered thereof.
