Hundreds of Iranian airline passengers experienced extreme panic in a series of back-to-back flight incidents in recent days, fortunately escaping what could have otherwise turned into deadly tragedies.
On Jan. 27, a narrow-body MD-83 operated by Iran’s Caspian Airlines skidded off the runway upon landing in the southwestern port city of Mahshahr. After the tires failed to descend upon landing, the aircraft ended up lying on its belly on a busy highway outside the airport. Videos went viral of the 135 passengers getting off the plane, some from exit doors and others over the wings, after they survived the nail-biting moment. The scene of the “plane right on a city street” was “a surreal and apocalyptic image,” one Iranian tweeted. Iran’s civil aviation organization later announced the damaged plane had been pulled back to the airport to be permanently grounded.
