Brazil plane skids from runway spooking 151 on board

This is the moment passengers were evacuated from a Brazilian airline Latam plane after it skidded off a rain-soaked runway with 151 people on board and became stuck in mud.

The Airbus A320 left the runway while landing at Cascavel Regional Airport in Cascavel, in the western Brazilian state of Parana, at around 9.45am on 31 August.

The aircraft, operating flight LA3858 from Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, was carrying 145 passengers and six crew members.

Video from the aftermath shows deep tracks carved through the soggy ground beside the runway before the mud-spattered aircraft came to a halt.

Stairs were placed beside the plane so passengers could disembark onto the wet ground before being taken towards the airport terminal. Nobody was injured.

Passenger Renato Borca, 41, said the aircraft suddenly veered left shortly after touching down.

He said: “It was a shock. The plane came down a bit too fast, the ground felt a bit strange, and suddenly we realised the aircraft had gone to the left and left the runway.

“But it was just a shock. Thank God everyone is fine and alive. It is the shock that stays with you. It still has not really sunk in.”

Renato said the pilot had earlier warned passengers that the aircraft might have to circle before landing because of conditions at Cascavel.

Around ten minutes later, the crew announced that the flight had been cleared to land.

The unidentified pilot later told passengers that the aircraft had left the runway because it was slippery.

He said: “Because the runway was slippery, at the end of the runway we ended up going off on the left side.”

Rain was falling in Cascavel at the time of the incident.

Latam said all 151 people on board disembarked safely and that it was providing assistance to passengers and staff.

The airport was closed to take-offs and landings while arrangements were made to remove the aircraft.

Latam also cancelled return flight LA3859 from Cascavel to Guarulhos and said affected passengers were being placed on other services departing from Foz do Iguacu, about 140 kilometres away.

The airline said it was cooperating with authorities investigating the incident.

The cause of the runway excursion remains under investigation.

(Newsflash)