The Boeing 737-300 carrying 78 passengers suffered serious damage when a failed takeoff attempt sent it careening off the tarmac and into the bush at Blaise Diagne airport near the capital city Dakar.

A clip taken by one horrified traveller showed a female customer sprinting away from the scene of the wreckage as flames poured from the 737’s left engine, lighting up the night sky.

More images later showed the plane, operated by Senegalese carrier Transair, nestled in the dirt with a gaping hole in the left engine that was covered in firefighting foam in the aftermath of the blaze.

Emergency crews rushed to evacuate the passengers, eleven of whom were injured, four seriously so – though no deaths have been reported – as flights from the airport were suspended.

Authorities are now trying to establish the cause of the incident that comes just one day after another Boeing aircraft – a 767 cargo plane operated by American postal service FedEx – performed an emergency landing in Turkey after its landing gear failed.

The crashes will only compound woes for the company which is already facing intense scrutiny amid a string of mishaps and controversy over safety concerns – not to mention the deaths of two whistleblowers just two months apart.

That flight took off from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport early yesterday and was headed for Istanbul when the pilot realised the landing gear was malfunctioning.

Unsettling footage showed the moment the plane attempted an emergency landing, touching down into the runway and scraping its nose along the concrete.

Sparks flew from the plane’s tattered fuselage as it crunched along the tarmac with smoke billowing from behind.

Fortunately, firefighters and rescue teams were already waiting at the scene, with Turkey’s transport ministry having dispatched emergency teams as soon as it learned that the pilot’s landing gear was not working.

The first responders flocked to surround the plane as it ground to a halt and immediately doused it with firefighting foam to prevent any potential fire from sparking.

No one was injured in today’s incident and the crew safely evacuated the aircraft, said Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Turkey’s transportation and infrastructure minister.

The runway where the plane landed was closed off while the aircraft was being removed, he said.

‘IGA Istanbul Airport Rescue and ARFF continues its efforts to move the aircraft to a safe area and open the runway to flight traffic. Flight traffic and operations continue smoothly on all other runways, including the spare runways,’ a statement read.

Boeing is already under the microscope amid mounting controversy over safety problems, suspected quality control issues and the deaths of whistleblowers.

The US’ Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it has opened an investigation into the company after workers at a South Carolina plant falsified inspection records on certain 787 planes.

In an email to Boeing’s South Carolina employees on April 29, Scott Stocker, who leads the 787 program, said a worker observed an ‘irregularity’ in a required test of the wing-to-body join and reported it to his manager.

‘After receiving the report, we quickly reviewed the matter and learned that several people had been violating Company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as having been completed,’ Stocker wrote.

No planes have been taken out of service, but having to perform the test out of order on planes will slow the delivery of jets still being built at the final assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Boeing must also create a plan to address planes that are already flying, the FAA said.

‘The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records,’ a statement read.

Read the full originally published story at dailymail.co.uk

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