 The wreckage of Flight 2193 after the crash | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 5 February 2020 (2020-02-05) |
| Summary | Runway overrun due to pilot error and ATC error |
| Site | Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport,Pendik,Istanbul, Turkey 40°54′20″N29°19′35″E / 40.9055063°N 29.3264491°E /40.9055063; 29.3264491 |
 | |
| Aircraft | |
 TC-IZK, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 2016 | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-86J[a] |
| Aircraft name | Açelya |
| Operator | Pegasus Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | PC2193 |
| ICAO flight No. | PGT87R |
| Call sign | SUNTURK 87 ROMEO |
| Registration | TC-IZK |
| Flight origin | İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport,İzmir, Turkey |
| Destination | Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport,Pendik,Istanbul, Turkey |
| Occupants | 183 |
| Passengers | 177 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 3 |
| Injuries | 179 |
| Survivors | 180 |
Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight fromİzmir toIstanbul inTurkey operated byPegasus Airlines. On 5 February 2020, theBoeing 737-800 operating the route skidded off the runway while landing atIstanbul-Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Turkey. Three people were killed, 179 people were injured, and the aircraft was destroyed.[1] This was the first fatal accident in the airline's history.[2] The accident came less than a month after another Pegasus Airlines accident involving a Boeing 737 skidding off the runway at the same airport.[3]
The aircraft was aBoeing 737-86J[a]registered asTC-IZK, withserial number 37742. It was 11 years old at the time of the crash, having first flown in January 2009. The plane had previously been operated by the now-defunct German airlineAir Berlin before being acquired by Pegasus in May 2016.[4] Prior to the crash, Pegasus was scheduled to withdraw this aircraft once leasing expired, as the airline plans to move to an all-Airbus fleet in the future.[5][6]
In command wasCaptain Mahmut Aslan, and his co-pilot wasFirst Officer Ferdinand Pondaag, a Dutch national with 400 total flight hours.[7][8][9]
Flight 2193 operated within Turkey fromİzmir Adnan Menderes Airport,İzmir, to Istanbul without incident. At approximately 18:30 local time,[1] the plane attempted to land atSabiha Gökçen in Istanbul in heavy rain and strong tailwinds.[6] A thunderstorm with strong wind gusts was passing through the area at the time of the accident.[5] Two other aircraftaborted their landing attempts at the same airport shortly before Flight 2193 landed.[10]
After what Turkey's transport minister described as a "rough landing," the aircraft failed to decelerate. It skidded off the east end of the runway.[11] The aircraft hit ILS antennas and a small building before it fell 30 m down an embankment, impacting with a force that survivors described as like an explosion.[12] The aircraft broke into three sections, with the forward section of the fuselage especially damaged during the incident. Passengers escaped the plane via gaps between the fuselage sections. A fire broke out, and was later extinguished by firefighters.[1][6]
In the early hours of Feb 6th 2020, Turkey's health minister said three passengers were killed and 179 people were taken to local hospitals with injuries.[1] 12 children were believed to be on board the plane, according to reports from the Turkish media.[13] An investigation of the pilots will be launched based on speculations of crew negligence. The pilots received treatment in the hospital, before they were taken to a police station to provide their statements.[14][15]
The CEO of Pegasus Airlines, Mehmet T. Nane, stated that they had recovered the plane's black boxes, and had begun extracting the data inside.[10][needs update] A preliminary report indicated that high tailwinds were present upon landing, and that the pilots, being unaware of this, may have ceased braking efforts prematurely.[2] On 26 December 2020, the final report into the accident was, instead of being published, shared among officials due to the fact that the Turkish Accident Investigation committee was then defunct. The final report stated that the accident was caused by pilot error and ATC error, compounded by windshear on landing. The pilots were at fault by the fact that they failed to go around before it was too late. The controller was faulted for not giving the pilots sufficient weather information, and all of this being complicated by windshear.[9]