Plane crash-lands on its belly in Russia

Passengers were seen evacuating with their hand luggage

Twitter/@27khv

A plane had to evacuate when it crash-landed on its belly in Russia.

The hard landing occurred when a Boeing 737 aircraft, belonging to Russian carrier Utair, landed in Usinsk in the Komi Republic of north-western Russia.

According to the airline, the jet hit unexpected windshear as it came into land.

Footage from the incident shows the plane coming to a stop across the wintry runway resting on its engines and belly, without its landing gear.

Passengers can be seen evacuating via the emergency doors of the aircraft, with some climbing onto the plane wings. Some passengers were seen holding their luggage.

In a statement on Facebook, Utair said there was a “sharp, impenetrable wind shift” during the landing.

There were 94 passengers onboard the Boeing 737 jet, said Utair. Nobody was injured, although one passenger sought medical help for a knee injury.

The airline praised the “operational and highly professional actions of the crew”. It said the plane’s captain had logged 6,900 flying hours on the aircraft type, while the co-pilot had 3,600 hours.

Experts have flown to Usinsk to determine the cause of the incident, Utair added.

Last week, three people died after a plane broke into three pieces during a rough landing at a Turkish airport.

The Pegasus Airlines aircraft skidded off the runway at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen airport on landing, crashing into a road. Footage showed serious damage to the plane’s fuselage, which appears to be cracked in three places.

Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said three person had died in the incident, while 179 of the 183 passengers and crew on board were being treated in hospitals across the region. The jet, flight number PC2193, was arriving from the city of Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean Coast.

The country’s transport ministry said the accident was the result of a “rough landing”.