Two pilots on a DHL Boeing 757 escaped injury when the aircraft departed the runway during an emergency landing at Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica on Thursday. The crew reported hydraulic problems after taking off for Guatemala City. After holding for about an hour, the aircraft returned to the airport and equipment was waiting. 

The landing appeared normal but the crew went hard on the brakes at the end of the landing roll. The aircraft veered right and spun about 270 degrees in a ditch at the side of the runway. The fuselage broke in two toward the tail and the aircraft is a write-off. The runway was closed for several hours but reopened about 5 p.m. local time.

10 COMMENTS

    • I assume “write-off” means insurance write-off, wherein the insurance company pays out the policy holder and gets the whole thing (minus contents) to salvage as they see fit. That would include pulling the electronics for resale to offset the cost of the claim.

    • Depending on the nature of the hydraulic failure and where it occurred in the system, various things would work/not work. There is an awful lot in this plane that uses hydraulics. It looks to me like they did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

  1. Juan Browne just did a rundown of this on his Blancolirio YT channel. I think he flies 777s now but he spent a lot of time in 757s. It sounds like they lost the left hydraulics circuit soon after take off and came back. Juan conveys a sense of his personal expectations about airmanship that I enjoy.