Plane from New York crashes at Guyana airport

A plane has crashed and broken in two on landing at Guyana's main airport in the capital, Georgetown, causing injuries but no deaths. The Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737-800 flight BW-523 from New York had 163 people aboard. The plane apparently overshot the runway at Cheddi Jagan International Airport during wet weather. It halted near a 200-ft (61-m) ravine that could have resulted in dozens of deaths, Guyana's president said. "We are very, very grateful that more people were not injured," Bharrat Jagdeo added, quoted by AP news agency. The airport was due to re-open at 1000 local time (1400 GMT). There were 157 passengers and six crew aboard the plane when the accident occurred at 0132 local time, according to a statement from Caribbean Airlines. The plane had made a stop in Trinidad en route from New York. A woman quoted by Guyana's Kaieteur News service described hearing a loud sound when it landed in Guyana, and said everyone began screaming. "It was terror," she said. "I was praying to Jesus." Her husband opened the emergency door and passengers began escaping, she added. Another passenger, 42-year-old Adis Cambridge, said: "I realised that everything was on top of me, people and bags. I was the second to last person to get off that plane in the dark. "I hit my head on the roof. It was so scary." She and other passengers described jumping first onto the wing and then down onto a track below to escape. Rescuers struggled in the dark to free other passengers from the wreckage. One woman described how a taxi driver got to the scene before the emergency services and charged her to be driven back to the terminal. 'Airport chaos' Kristopher Kimlin, who was not on the crashed plane but was trying to fly out of the airport, told BBC News there was "chaos" after the crash. "The airport is simply not set up to deal with this kind of situation - they were overwhelmed," he said. "There were queues of people around the entire terminal building and out of the door. There were maybe 1,000 people. Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy told the French news agency AFP one person had suffered a broken leg and several others sustained minor bruises. They are being treated in hospital in Georgetown. Caribbean Airlines, which is majority-owned by Trinidad and Tobago with Jamaica holding a minority stake, does not have a history of serious safety problems.