Hawaiian plane just avoids disaster

The plane stopped just short of disaster in the lagoon

A Hawaiian airliner overshot the runway at Tahiti's Faaa international airport in driving rain to stop just short of possible disaster with its front wheel in a lagoon.

Officials said there was only one injury suffered on board the Hawaiian Airlines DC10 flight 481 from Honolulu late on Saturday. One passenger hurt his knee.

There were no serious injuries on board

The 136 passengers and crew on board the flight were, according to witnesses of the crash, lucky to escape with no serious injuries.

The authorities temporarily cancelled flights into the airport by wide-bodied airliners because of the plane sitting on the very edge of the lagoon.

A similar accident occurred in 1993 when a Air France flight hit by engine failure also crashed into the lagoon at Faaa airport. No one was hurt in that incident either.