Boeing 737 Alaska Airlines plane forced to emergency land at LAX after 'tyre blows out' during take-off at Dulles International Airport
An Alaska Airlines plane was forced to emergency land after a tyre blew out during take-off.
The Boeing 737 made the emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport during its take-off at Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C on Thursday (14 November). The aircraft landed at LAX at about 8:10 p.m. without incident.
First responders were standing by on the runway as a precaution. Out of the 175 passengers and six crew members aboard Flight 309, no one was injured.
The airline said: "While this incident is a rare occurrence, our flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios”. Alaska stated that the pilot declared the emergency landing as a precaution to ensure the flight had extra support if needed.
The company said it would investigate what caused the Boeing 737-900 to malfunction. The aircraft will not be in service during the investigation.
FL360aero posted on X, formerly Twitter, that passengers “applauded the safe landing after the air turn back was announced owing to the incident”. It added: “As per the ATC communication the incident could have taken place during the take-off roll at 160kts. The carrier said it would investigate what caused the Boeing 737-900 to malfunction.”