Caribbean Airline jet crashes and splits in two while landing in Guyana

Caribbean Airline jet crashes and splits in two while landing in Guyana
Caribbean Airline jet crashes and splits in two while landing in Guyana. Passengers aboard Caribbean Airlines Flight 523 said they had begun to applaud the pilot's landing in the South American country when suddenly things went wrong.

A Caribbean Airlines jet from New York touched down on rainy runway, then slid through a chain-link fence and broke apart just short of a ravine on Saturday in Guyana. Miraculously there were no immediate reports of death among the 163 people aboard, despite several dozen of injuries.

Passengers aboard Flight 523 said they had begun to applaud the pilot's landing in the South American country when suddenly things went wrong. The Boeing 737-800 apparently overshot the 7,400-foot (2,200-meter) runway at Cheddi Jagan International Airport and barely missed a 200-foot (60-meter) ravine that could have resulted in dozens of fatalities, said President Bharrat Jagdeo, who came to the crash site before dawn.

"We are very, very grateful that more people were not injured," he said.

Read more: latimes