Photo: website

A China Express Airlines flight slid off the runway after landing at Aksu Airport, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Sunday evening. The incident was caused by poor weather conditions and late braking, the Xinjiang Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a notice on Wednesday.

While the plane was landing on the number 27 runway of Aksu Airport, the wind changed from headwind to downwind, causing the landing speed to increase.

There was also water on the runway and the pilot pressed the brake too late, forcing the plane to go off the end of the runway at a low speed.

Four passengers have suffered minor injuries and the runway n was closed for a short period of time.

Flight G54394 from China Express Airlines, also known as Huaxia Airlines, from Korla to Aksu, overshot the runway when landing at 6:14 pm on Sunday. The flight was carrying 64 passengers and 9 crew members. Four passengers had slight scratch injures during the evacuation. The operations at the airport had resumed at 9:30 pm.

Pictures from the scene showed that the plane had slide off the runway landing in an area of gravel and sand. The emergency exit hatches were open, the plane remained largely undamaged, and there was no fire at the scene.

Stock prices of China Express Airlines plunged on Monday following the accident losing more than 10 percent in morning trading. The company has yet to respond to the incident.

According to the latest semi-annual report released by China Express Airlines, the company's operating revenue reached 2.329 billion yuan ($360.06 million) in the first half on 2021, up 17.4 percent year-on-year, recovering to 94.0 percent in the same period of 2019.