Passengers aboard a British Airways Comair plane saw sparks fly as their plane came skidding to a halt on a South African runway.
The pilot told passengers the “left landing gear had broken off,” according to Warren Mann, who was on BA Flight 6234 when it crash-landed Monday at Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
The plane was carrying 94 passengers and six crew at the time and none were injured, according to a statement from Comair.
“The aircraft was on the runway for a short period performing standard landing procedures when the crew noticed an unusual vibration which was followed shortly by the collapse of the left landing gear,” Comair said.
The broken landing gear “caused the plane to hit the runway at an angle,” Mann told Traveller24. “We could see sparks as the left wing and the engines were scraped across the runway. The wing seemed completely broken off.”
Fire and rescue crews met the jet on the runway and sprayed the plane as passengers escaped on emergency slides.
According to the airline, the flight had departed Port Elizabeth at 10:35 a.m. local time.
The incident briefly closed the runway and an investigation is ongoing, said the airline.