Passengers seen clambering out of broken Turkish jet after deadly crash
New details emerged Thursday about a deadly plane crash in Istanbul, Turkey. Video showed the flight landing in wet weather Wednesday, then dropping into a ditch.
CBS News correspondent Roxana Saberi says the plane broke into three pieces after skidding off the runway and dropping into the ditch, which is almost 100 feet deep. Three people were killed and scores were injured.
The impact of the crash was so strong that the front of the fuselage even flipped upside down where it came to rest next to the rest of the heavily damaged aircraft.
Most of the 183 passengers and crew survived, some even managing to scramble to safety through a gaping crack in the fuselage.
Later, several of the walking wounded were seen on a shuttle bus, with no first responders in sight.
One man said he was seated in row 25, and the plane broke apart at row 26. He told Turkish television that even though he was hurt, he guided other passengers to safety.
Security camera video showed the plane landing hard in heavy rain. Istanbul's governor has said the bad weather caused the aircraft to slide off the runway.
Turkish officials told CBS News that the investigation into the crash would include interviewing the jet's pilots, but as they were still among those being treated for injuries it was unclear when they might give testimony.
Pegasus Airlines CEO held back tears Thursday morning he defended his fleet's safety record. He said the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders - the so-called "black boxes" - had been located and were being analyzed.
It was the third time a Boeing 737 flown by the low-cost Turkish airline has skidded off a runway in the past two years, after an incident at the same Istanbul airport just last month, and a previous mishap in northeastern Turkey, when a passenger jet slid to a stop just feet from the Black Sea.