Passenger Jet Hit Runway Lights in Take-Off, Lands With Hole in Aircraft

• An Air Serbia flight knocked into runway lights as it took off on Sunday, sustaining heavy damage.
• It flew for about an hour before finishing an emergency landing at high speed, flight data shows.
• Images on social media of the damage shows a gashes and a large hole in the plane’s fuselage.

A commercial jet in Belgrade, Serbia, struck a set of runway lights during take-off on Sunday, which punched a hole into its fuselage that forced an emergency landing an hour later, local media reported.

Air Serbia flight JU324, operated by Greek carrier Marathon Airlines and bound for Düsseldorf, Germany, began rolling for take-off when it was halfway down the runway, with around 4,260 feet of space to accelerate, per Serbian aviation news outlet Tango Six.

It’s unclear why the Embraer E195LR started its take-off with a shorter runway distance, but Tango Six reported that its crew told flight traffic control they were confident the plane could make it.

Planes like the E195, which generally has a capacity of 132 seats, typically need around 7,000 feet of runway to take off comfortably.

As the E195 departed Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport, the bottom of its fuselage hit a set of runway lights for an opposite runway, per Tango Six.

It later made an emergency landing at the same airport, at 40 knots faster than usual, likely because its flaps were not working, the outlet reported.

Data from FlightRadar24 also shows that the E195 was moving at around 164 knots when it touched the ground, compared to a usual landing speed of about 125 knots.

By comparison, the flight’s maximum speed while climbing was 234 knots.

Footage on social media of the damage to the plane shows gashes and a large hole in its fuselage. Another photo posted online appeared to show parts of the aircraft’s body shorn off from where its left wing is attached.

Air Serbia told TangoSix that no one was seriously injured. It’s not immediately clear how many passengers were on board flight JU324.

Tracking data shows that the plane continued to ascend for 20 minutes, even after sustaining heavy damage, up to an altitude of 6,550 feet.

It then immediately began descending, looping around the area for the next 40 minutes before making its emergency landing, per FlightRadar24.

Press teams for Air Serbia and the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.