A 737-300 collided with a car on the runway on its takeoff roll Sunday morning, and the crash and the aftermath were caught on video by a passenger in a window seat just above the wing. The video, posted on YouTube, records a loud smashing sound and apparent turmoil in the cabin. The airplane was stopped on the airport and passengers were evacuated with no reports of injuries. “This was a serious incident in which the plane was damaged,” said Valentin Iordache, a spokesperson for Bucharest’s Otopeni airport, according to news24.com. The aircraft, operated by the Romanian airline Tarom, was carrying 120 passengers bound from Romania to a resort area in Egypt. It apparently struck a car that had been driven onto the runway to check the lighting. Visibility was poor due to thick fog. “A disaster was avoided thanks to the crew’s professionalism,” Tarom spokesman Gheorghe Barla told news24. He said the vehicle left on the runway was privately owned and had been “forgotten” there, and the control tower was unaware of its location.
The accident is under investigation and no official cause has been determined.
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