A Qantas flight skidded off the runway and ended up stuck in mud during heavy rain.
Flight QF2650, which flew from Perth in Western Australia to Newman, a mining town in the Pilbara region, overshot the runway by around 50 metres.
The incident, involving the Fokker 100 aircraft, occurred amid Cyclone Blake, which has caused heavy rain and high winds in the Pilbara region in recent days.
All 80 passengers and crew disembarked the plane normally, and there were no injuries.
The airport is currently closed while it removes the plane.
“The Shire of East Pilbara has suspended operations at Newman Airport while Qantas works to remove the aircraft from the runway according to their policies and procedures. At this stage we are unable to provide an accurate time when operations will be restored, although it is anticipated that it will be sometime this afternoon,” said Shire President Lynne Craigie.
“The incident will be investigated by Qantas and the Shire of East Pilbara is not in a position to provide further details on the incident. At this stage the focus is to restore normal operations to Newman Airport for our passengers as quickly as possible,” she added.
A QantasLink spokesperson told The Independent: “The aircraft has come to a complete stop in what’s called the runway end safety area.
“Flights in and out of Newman have been cancelled for the rest of the day, while the aircraft is removed.
“We have commenced an internal investigation to determine how this occurred and have reported the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
“We apologise to impacted customers and are working to re-accommodate them as quickly as possible.”
