Aftermath Photos of Caribbean Airlines Crash

A Caribbean Airlines jet from New York overshot the runway after it had just touched down Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Georgetown, Guyana, and broke apart injuring several dozens of people.

The 163 passengers on board escaped with serious injury but none were killed, officials told The New York Times. The passengers were aboard a Boeing 737-800 and began applauding the pilot's landing in Guyana just after midnight when things went wrong.

Officials say the Boeing 737-800 aircraft skidded past the end of the runway in the rain at Cheddi Jagan International Airport. The jet broke in two came to rest in a field on the edge of a 60-meter deep.

Once the plane had come to a stop, the passengers exited from the rear door of the plane, which was lower to the ground than the middle door, government spokesman Roger Bhulai told CNN. People had to jump out of the back door as the emergency chute failed to open, he said.

Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo went to the scene, along with several of his Cabinet ministers, and said he was very, very thankful and grateful that there were no deaths. Jagdeo walked around the plane and talked to passengers for a while at the scene, Bhulai told CNN.

Investigators from the United States and Guyana will retrieve the flight data and other information for analysis in determining what caused the crash.

"We must be the luckiest country and luckiest set of people in the world to escape so lightly," Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy told Associated Press. He said more than 30 people were taken to the hospital, but only three had to be admitted for a broken leg, bumps, cuts and bruises.

Take a glimpse of the photos of bizarre Caribbean Airlines crash: