Plane skids off tarmac and dangles off a cliff in Turkey

A jet that skidded off a runway after landing in northern Turkey dangled precariously off a muddy cliff with its nose only a few feet from the sea.

A Pegasus Airlines Boing 737 passenger plane is seen struck in mud on an embankment, a day after skidding off the airstrip. Picture: OUTSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

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Images show the Boeing 737-800 on its belly and at an acute angle just above the water.

If it had stopped any further along the slope, the plane would have probably plunged into the Black Sea in the Turkish province of Trabzon.

All 162 passengers and crew on board were evacuated and safe early Sunday. The cause of the accident was not yet known. Picture: DHA-Depo Photos via AP

The incident late on Saturday created panic among the 162 passengers and crew on board the Pegasus Airlines flight, but they were all evacuated safely.

Trabzon Governor Yucel Yavuz said on Sunday that investigators were trying to determine why the plane had left the runway.

The flight originated in the capital, Ankara.

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