By William Madouk Garang
United Nations run airplane skidded off the runway while landing at the airstrip in Upper Nile State’s Malakal town, on Monday evening; this is according to UN Mission in South Sudan.
According to UN peace mission, the 78-seater plane got seriously stuck in the mud which hampered the operations at the airport. However, no injuries were reported.
In a statement seen by No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, the UN mission said the incident was caused by bad weather.
“Engineering peacekeepers from India, serving with UNMISS in Malakal, were thrown a surprise challenge the other day: a UN 78-seater aircraft arriving from Juba steered off the runway after landing,” UNMISS said in a Facebook post.
“While nobody on board was injured, the plane got seriously stuck in the mud, thus hampering operations at the airport,” it added.
The UN peace mission said with no previous experience of any similar situation, the Indian engineering troops were called upon to safely recover the aircraft.
“The rescue operation was called off due to bad weather, but after some 48 hours, the peacekeepers together with the flight crew and airport authorities managed to salvage the plane,” UNMISS noted.
In June this year, a cargo plane crashed at Juba International Airport (JIA) while trying to take off.
The Folker 27-60 plane was en-routed to one of the counties of Upper Nile, carrying unspecified assorted logistic supplies.
The Director of Juba International Airport (JIA), Kur Kuol said the plane failed to take-off before swerving off the runway and crashing into a standstill at the bushy edge of airport, and assured that all the three crew members including pilots were safe.