A DHL plane that was carrying cargo, including mail and packages, had skid off the run way during an emergency landing in Costa Rica and broke in half.
The incident happened at the international airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Thursday (8 April).
Images that emerged from the scene showed the tail of the plane also being detached, as well as a broken wing.
Firefighters were on site to douse the crashed plane with foam beside the runway.
Two of the crew members on board were described to be in “good health”, according to chief firefighter of Costa Rica, Hector Chaves.
The two Guatemalan crew members were then conveyed to the hospital fo ra medical checkup as part of precautionary measures, according to a Red Cross worker, Guido Vasquez.
Vasquez added that the crew and the pilot were conscious and remember everything vividly, but remain shaken from the incident.
The incident happened after the plane had taken off from the Juan Santamaria International Airport just before 10.30am, outside San Jose.
They were then forced to return about 25 minutes later for an emergency landing, with the crew reportedly alerting the authorities that they had a hydraulic problem with the plane.
The accident resulted in the airport being shut down until 3.30pm, with about 8,500 passengers and 57 flights being affected.
The general manager of Aeris, which manages the airport, said that activities have now gone back to normal at the airport.
DHL’s incident response team has been deployed and an investigation will be conducted to find out what happened.
1999 built DHL Aero Expreso B757-27APCF aircraft did an emergency landing receiving substantial damages at Juan SantamarÃa International Airport (SJO),followed by takeoff and a 25 minutes holding pattern from the same airport on 7th April.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) April 7, 2022
📹Edwin Rose #aircraft #safety #aviation pic.twitter.com/p6hkCXqOLY