A passenger jet has skidded off a runway and got stuck in the mud on the edge of a cliff in northern Turkey.

"We tilted to the side, the front was down while the plane's rear was up. There was panic; people shouting, screaming," one of the passengers, Fatma Gordu, told state-run news agency Anadolu.

Dramatic images showed the white aircraft left dangling precariously on the steep, muddy cliff face beside the Black Sea.

Some 162 passengers and crew were on board the aircraft when it overshot the runway and nosedived downhill.

They were evacuated safely by emergency services and no one was hurt.

A Boeing 737-800 of Turkey's Pegasus Airlines after skidding off the runway downhill towards the sea at the airport in Trabzon, Turkey | Image: AP/Press Association Images

The Pegasus Airline Boeing 737 was flying from the Turkish capital Ankara to Trabzon Airport when it ended up careering off the runway on Sunday.

It is not yet known what caused the plane to skid off onto the cliff face.

The local governor, Yucel Yavuz, said an investigation had been launched into the incident - which Pegasus Airlines described in a statement as a "runway excursion".

The airport, situated in the Turkish province of the same name, was closed for several hours afterwards but has since reopened.

Social media users reacted to the footage of the crash, with some saying it was "incredible it stopped where it did".

"How lucky are those passengers!" wrote one person on Twitter.