Turkish efforts under way to remove plane from slope

Turkish authorities are using a large crane to lift a passenger plane that skidded off a runway in northern Turkey and stopped on the side of a slope metres away from the Black Sea.

The Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800, with 168 people on board, left the runway after landing at Trabzon Airport on January 13.

All passengers and crew were evacuated and no-one was injured.

Ambulances and fire extinguishing trucks were on standby as the crane lifted the plane up the slope.

Workers involved in the recovery operation posed for a group photograph in front of the half-dangling plane.

A worker guides a crane lifting a Boeing 737-800 of Turkey's Pegasus Airlines from a slope in Trabzon, Turkey.

Turkish media said the pilots told investigators that the plane’s right engine experienced a sudden surge of speed that forced it to swerve to the left, toward the sea.

PA