Plane slides half way down cliff after skidding off runway

All 162 passengers evacuated safely following incident a airport in Turkey

Panic broke out on a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 when it skidded off the runway at a Turkish airport and plunged down the side of a cliff overlooking the Black Sea. All 168 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. Video: Reuters

A jet that skidded off a runway after landing in northern Turkey dangled precariously off a muddy cliff with its nose only a few feet from the sea.

Images show the Boeing 737-800 on its belly and at an acute angle just above the water.

If it had stopped any further along the slope, the plane would have probably plunged into the Black Sea in the Turkish province of Trabzon.

The incident late on Saturday created panic among the 162 passengers and crew on board the Pegasus Airlines flight, but they were all evacuated safely.

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Trabzon Governor Yucel Yavuz said on Sunday that investigators were trying to determine why the plane had left the runway.

The flight originated in the capital, Ankara.