Only 5 of the 333 passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid were slightly injured after the Airbus A340-600 they were travelling on skidded off the runway at Quito's Mariscal Sucre airport shortly after 5pm local time yesterday evening. The plane ended up resting on its broken left wing in a sand trap at the northern end of the runway after an apparent blowout.
An airport official explained how the pilot had averted a potentially massive loss of life by wrestling the runaway craft to a halt just 100 metres from some mechanical workshops at the start of the El Rosario residential district.
30 fire-fighters quickly controlled a small blaze in one of the damaged under-wing engines before freezing all the turbines so that the damaged plane could be towed away. As a result of the accident, Quito airport has been closed for two days with flights being diverted to Guayaquil on the country's Pacific coast.
It has been confirmed that PSV Eindhoven's Ecuadorian international, Edison Mendez, was among the passengers. Happily, Ecuador coach, Pedro Muñoz, has since reassured fans that although Mendez "had had a bit of a fright," he was not injured.
