Costa Rica shuts airport after cargo plane makes emergency landing, splits in two

Costa Rica's Juan Santamaria International Airport will remain closed until 6 p.m. local time on Thursday after a Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft operated by DHL made an emergency landing before skidding off the runway and splitting, aviation authorities said.

The pilot and copilot were evacuated, airport operator Aeris said in a statement.

Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion tweeted images showing the yellow aircraft emblazoned with DHL with its tail detached and a broken wing, being doused with firefighting foam as its lay partly in a grass field and the runway.

DHL, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post AG, said the crew were physically unharmed in the incident, adding "one crew member is undergoing medical checks as a precaution."

Aeris said Juan Santamaria airport, on the outskirts of capital San Jose, will remain closed until 6 p.m. local time, impacting 32 commercial flights to and from the United States, Central America, Mexico, Canada and Europe. Three cargo flights are also affected.

The aircraft, bound for Guatemala, apparently had a failure in the hydraulic system, prompting the pilot to request an emergency landing shortly after takeoff, Luis Miranda Munoz, Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Costa Rica, told Reuters.

Munoz said the aircraft is still on the ground and aviation authorities are waiting for it to be removed in order to resume operations.

DHL said they are coordinating with the airport authorities on moving the aircraft from the runway so that normal airport operations can be resumed as soon as possible.

"DHL's incident response team has been activated and an investigation will be conducted with the relevant authorities to determine what happened," DHL said.