A passenger jet operated by budget airline Lion Air missed the runway at Bali airport yesterday and landed in the sea, but everybody on board survived.
The Boeing jet carrying more than 100 passengers missed the runway as it came in to land in good weather conditions at Denpasar airport on the Indonesian resort island, transport ministry official Herry Bhakti said.
Bhakti initially said the plane overshot the runway, but later clarified his comments to say that it landed straight in the water.
Images of the incident site showed the plane partially submerged in the water with inflatable slides deployed from the front exits and a large crack in the fuselage toward the rear of the aircraft. Passengers in life jackets could be seen in the water.
“The plane was about to land when suddenly it fell into the sea. People on board panicked and began screaming,” said a passenger named Dewi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
A Lion Air spokesman said the 737-800 was carrying 101 passengers and seven crew members. Bhakti initially said it had been carrying more than 130 passengers.
He said the aircraft started operating last year and was new.
The national transportation safety committee “will investigate the cause of the incident,” he said.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured in the incident or what the nationalities of the passengers were.
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