A Canary Islands getaway got off to a rocky start for British vacationers Friday as their plane slammed the brakes during touchdown, skidded across the landing strip and came to rest inches from the sea.
No one was hurt in the incident, and the 74 passengers on Spanish airline Air Europa were escorted off the Boeing jet shortly after the jolting 7 a.m. landing, the Daily Mail in London reported.
'The plane is fine, it can fly, but I don't know if it will fly again today,” passenger Nora McNair, 80, told the BBC.
The Canaries got rain throughout the previous night, and the tarmac was slippery when the wheels touched down near Lanzarote beach, an Air Europa spokesman told the Mail.
Spain’s national news agency reported that the airline blamed the incident on atmospheric conditions and said human error was not at fault, but didn’t identify the precise cause.