Ethiopian Airlines’ Dash-8 accident in Juba due to bad weather condition

An unfortunate event happened on Ethiopian Airlines aircraft as it suffered a runway excursion at Juba International airport yesterday. The main cause of the incident is said to be the wet weather conditions. The aircraft had extensive damage. Fortunately, all crews together with the passengers onboard have deplaned safely.

Images regarding this event are circulating online so fast sympathizing and worrying about what happened in South Sudan. As seen on the photos, the Ethiopian Airlines’ aircraft ended up some way off the runway which was embedded in a grassy field and listing to one side. If you were to see the close-up images, it shows several damages to the landing gear and fuselage, respectively.

Still, the detailed information about the incident is vague and somewhat scant as of the moment. Online comments and opinions conclude that the aircraft was taking-off when something unfortunate happened which cause the runway excursion. Besides, it said to be due to bad weather conditions as the pilot still tried to take-off which makes it difficult for them to vividly see the runway.

The registration number of the aircraft is not seen on the photos so we are unaware if it was Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 or not. If the guess is correct, it was surely in the process of taking off. It would then put the flight more likely as ET357 from Juba to Addis Ababa (ADD). Knowing the said details, it should have departed approximately 17:15 on the said evening.

We’d checked various flight tracking systems like Flight Radar and found out that the status of this flight is unknown. But there was another Ethiopian Airlines scheduled to fly to Addis Ababa. With that, we expect several passengers were accommodated on the second flight. However, this airline company remains quiet especially to the annoyance of some of the friends and relatives of those passengers on board.

Runaway excursions do happen from time to time. Another incident in the USA last October where a Frontier Airlines A320 veer off the runway. The same goes for the huge Thai 747 which skidded off the runway in Bangkok last year which is due to bad weather conditions.

A representative of the Ethiopian representative released a statement that they haven’t learned that the weather condition was windy and rainy. Also, the passengers and crew were disembarked safely and are accommodated on the next flight available. The airline also apologizes to its esteemed passengers for the inconvenience.