A passenger jet has been left with gaping holes in its sides after slamming into landing poles during take-off in Serbia.
The Air Serbia aircraft, an Embraer E195LR, was supposed to fly to Dusseldorf, Germany, from Belgrade last night but struck a runway light during take-off, which reportedly punched a hole into its fuselage.
The 15-year-old plane, operated by Greek carrier Marathon Airlines, started its ascend but had to return to the airport for an emergency landing after an hour, after taking off at 4.37pm on Sunday afternoon.
The plane made, which flew with the flight number JU324, left the runway and looped twice in a square shape, before returning to the runway of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where it took off and landed, and performing one more loop.
Pictures showed the plane, which has a capacity of 132 seats, with an enormous hole on the left side of the fuselage.
Deep cracks can be seen across the body of the plane, and much of the connecting material between the wing and the body was exposed
Deep cracks can be seen across the body of the plane, and much of the connecting material between the wing and the body was exposed.
In a video taken of the plane on the runway foam and water can be seen dripping from the fuselage, suggesting fire crews were brought in.
Air Serbia told specialist aviation site TangoSix that no one onboard was seriously hurt. The exact number of passengers onboard is not immediately clear.
It is not currently known how or why the jet touched the landing pole on the runway, which measures just 4,260 feet.
Planes like the E195LR need roughly 7,000 ft to properly accelerate to get enough lift.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk