Jet Airways plane skids off runway in Dhaka, passengers safe

The Boeing-737 aircraft of India's private Jet Airways skidded the runway by over three meters at Dhaka's Zia International Airport just ahead of its take-off.

However, all 139 persons onboard the aircraft were safe, officials said here.

"The aircraft skidded off the runway just before take-off but there was no incident of casualty and all passengers and crew are safe," Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority Chairman Air Commodore Saked Iqbal Khan Majlis said.

He said the passengers were immediately evacuated from the aircraft while an airforce contingent joined the rescue operation along with civil aviation workers of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Jet airways Engineers.

"It may take another four hours to salvage the aircraft," Majlis said.

Airport officials said all scheduled foreign and local flights were suspended following the accident and an investigation was ordered immediately.

The incident happened at around 10.40 a m local time