An airport in Costa Rica was temporarily closed after a cargo plane crash-landed and fell apart on its runway.
A Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft owned by DHL came to a grinding halt on Thursday at Juan Santamaria International Airport as it split apart moments before it was set to take off for Guatemala. It is unclear what goods the plane was transporting.
The aircraft experienced a failure in the hydraulic system, according to Luis Miranda Munoz, deputy director of Costa Rica’s civil aviation authority. The problem was promptly detected, which led the pilot to request an emergency landing shortly after departing from the airport.
The plane landed on the runway before attempting to skid to a stop, according to footage posted online by AviationSource. After a few moments, the aircraft split in two as it fell off the runway. Both the pilot and copilot are in good health, according to a spokesperson from DHL.
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A much clearer version of the crash landing has emerged!
Source: Unknown#DHL #AvGeek pic.twitter.com/FCYbgFaW0H
— AviationSource (@AvSourceNews) April 7, 2022
“DHL’s incident response team has been activated, and an investigation will be conducted with the relevant authorities to determine what happened,” the delivery service said in a statement.
The crash forced the runway to close temporarily, according to the airport’s operator Aeris. The airport reopened around 3:30 p.m. local time, several hours earlier than expected.
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The delays affected more than 8,500 passengers and 57 commercial and cargo flights, according to Aeris.
