Emergency Landing Splits Cargo Jet in Half

Cargo carrier DHL says both pilots were unharmed after a emergency landing in Costa Rica Thursday that split the aircraft in two. Juan Santamaría Airport, San Jose's international airport, was closed for hours after the dramatic incident, Reuters reports. Luis Miranda Munoz, deputy director of Costa Rica's civil aviation authority, says pilots reported an apparent failure of the Boeing 757-200 cargo plane's hydraulic system and requested an emergency landing soon after it took off from San Jose, bound for Guatemala City.

The plane slid off the runway during the landing, turned, and broke into two, leaving the tail separated and the cargo exposed, the AP reports. Héctor Chaves, director of the Costa Rica Fire Department, says units rescued the pilot and co-pilot—the only crew members on board— and applied foam to prevent a fuel spill. "DHL's incident response team has been activated and an investigation will be conducted with the relevant authorities to determine what happened," DHL said in a statement, per CNN. (More emergency landing stories.)