Austral Jetliner skids off runway in Argentina

AN AUSTRAL jet with 96 passengers aboard skidded off a runway at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport Friday after landing in a storm.

Airport Tower

AN AUSTRAL jet with 96 passengers aboard skidded off a runway at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport Friday after landing in a storm, but no one was hurt, the airline said.

The Embraer E-190 was arriving from Rio de Janeiro when the mishap occurred, which the state-owned Argentine airline blamed on "bad prevailing weather conditions.''

The twin-engine jet went off the runway "due to a brusque change of wind direction and velocity,'' the airline said in a statement.

"It caused no injuries either among the passengers or the crew,'' it said.

The aircraft was blocking part of the runway when it came to rest, which forced the airport to shut down operations for three hours.

The plane was evacuated "without incident'' and the passengers taken to the terminal, the airline said.

Austral is a regional airline owned by Aerolineas Argentinas, the state-owned national carrier.