An American Airlines plane blew a tire upon takeoff and caught fire in Florida on Wednesday, the latest of multiple such incidents.
The flight, which was taking off from Tampa and headed Phoenix, was delayed after a “mechanical issue” on the runway right before takeoff, airline spokesman Alfredo Garduno told USA TODAY on Wednesday. The issue, according to Garduno, involved Boeing 737-800 tires.
Emergency responders responded to the scene just before 8 a.m. after receiving word that a tire had blown off and caught on fire, Tampa International Airport spokesman Joshua Gillin told the Tampa Bay Times.
Everyone on board, including 174 passengers and six crew members, were “safely deplaned and were bussed to the terminal,” Garduno said.
We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Garduno said.Another airline lost a tire recently
American Airlines isn’t the only airline reporting a rogue tire. United Airlines also reported a lost tire during takeoff early Monday morning.
A United Airlines aircraft headed to Denver from Los Angeles lost one wheel on takeoff shortly after 7:15 a.m. but managed to land safely at its destination around 10 a.m., USA TODAY reported. No injuries to the 174 passengers and flight crew onboard were reported in connection with the incident, Bloomberg reported.
“The wheel has been recovered in Los Angeles, and we are investigating what caused this event,” United Airlines said. Additional details about the tire were not immediately available.
The lost tire is just one of many incidents disclosed by United Airlines in the past year, which triggered a federal safety review of the carrier. United Airlines is still in a position of “increased oversight” by the Federal Aviation Administration, which was called in to conduct an in-depth examination of the airline’s operations, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told USA TODAY on Monday.
Leave a Reply