Watch: Shocking Clip Shows DHL Jet Snap In Half During Emergency Landing

A DHL cargo plane snapped in half on Thursday morning after skidding off the runway at the Juan Santamaria International airport in Costa Rica. 

Videos of the incident, shot by multiple people, show the Boeing 757-200 cargo jet skidding down the runway, taxiing, and turning into a ditch, then coming to a dead stop. The fuselage broke in half as firefighters rushed to the incident area. 

1. A DHL cargo plane broke in two when it skidded off the runway at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria international airport.

The pilot requested an emergency landing shortly after takeoff due to a failure in the Boeing 757-200 jet’s hydraulic system, according to UK Guardian. pic.twitter.com/i3JBLXsF9T

— BFM News (@NewsBFM) April 8, 2022

DHL Jet Skids Off Runway, breaks in two after an emergency landing in Costa Rica, crew unharmed. pic.twitter.com/BEt5C3JYyy

— Johnattan F. Bilancieri (@BilancieriNews) April 8, 2022

A video from the scene shows the extent of the damage. Firefighters doused the broken plane with water for fear fire could erupt. 

#EnDesarrollo: Así atienden las autoridades aterrizaje forzoso de un avión carguero de DHL en el Aeropuerto Juan Santamaría #NM935 pic.twitter.com/biDxTG6qpD

— Noticias Monumental (@MonumentalCR) April 7, 2022

Miraculously, the crew was “physically unharmed in the incident,” DHL, owned by Deutsche Post AG, said in a statement.

Luis Miranda Munoz, deputy director of Costa Rica’s civil aviation authority, told The Guardian that the cargo jet was headed for Guatemala when the pilot detected a hydraulic system failure. 

Juan Santamaria was shuttered for five hours after the crash, grounding 57 commercial and cargo flights. Airport operations resumed on late Thursday.