Passenger plane left stuck on cliff edge after skidding off runway in Turkey

Panic on board as aircraft narrowly avoids plunging into the sea

A passenger plane skidded off a runway and down the side of a cliff at an airport in northern Turkey.

The Pegasus Airlines jet narrowly avoided plunging into the sea after it came to a stop on a mud bank while landing at Trabzon Airport on the Black Sea coast.

Pictures showed it nose down the slope just metres from the water’s edge.

Some 162 passengers and six crew members were on board the Boeing 737-800, which had departed the Turkish capital Ankara.

Pegasus said in a statement the aircraft had been successfully evacuated and no injuries were reported.

One of the passengers, Fatma Gordu, told Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu the crash sparked panic on board the flight. “We tilted to the side, the front was down while the plane’s rear was up. There was panic, people shouting, screaming,” she said.

Trabzon governor Yücel Yavuz said authorities had not yet been determined what had caused the plane to career off the runway.

The airport was closed to traffic while the runway was inspected, but reopened on Sunday morning.