Spain Jet Overshoots Runway, Stops Metres From Sea

Source: Reuters    Author: Emma Pinedo, Ben Harding    10/31/2008

Subject Concerned: Airlines   Plane Crash   Airport   

A Spanish jet overshot the runway and stopped metres from the sea as it landed in the Canary Islands on Oct. 31 but no-one was hurt, Spanish airports operator AENA said.

Pictures showed the Air Europa plane, which had flown from Glasgow with 74 passengers on board, with its nose close to the airport's perimeter fence just metres from the Atlantic Ocean.

The AENA spokeswoman said it was not known why the Boeing 737 came to a stop so late as it landed at Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands, at 07:30GMT.

The airport was closed for three hours after the incident.

In August a Spanair jet destined for Gran Canaria in the same archipelago crashed on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 154 people.