A passenger plane skidded off a runway and down the side of a cliff at an airport in northern Turkey.

The Pegasus Airlines jet narrowly avoided plunging into the sea after it came to a stop on a mud bank while landing at Trabzon Airport on the Black Sea coast.

Footage from on board crashed plane at Trabzon Airport in Turkey

Pictures showed it nose down the slope just metres from the water’s edge.

Some 162 passengers and six crew members were on board the Boeing 737-800, which had departed the Turkish capital Ankara.

Pegasus said in a statement the aircraft had been successfully evacuated and no injuries were reported.

One of the passengers, Fatma Gordu, told Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu the crash sparked panic on board the flight. “We tilted to the side, the front was down while the plane’s rear was up. There was panic, people shouting, screaming,” she said.

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Trabzon governor Yücel Yavuz said authorities had not yet been determined what had caused the plane to career off the runway.