Burst Tyre Closes Heathrow Runway

Heathrow’s northern runway was forced to close for 20 minutes on an arriving Ethiopian Airlines aircraft burst a tyre during landing. “The aircraft made a routine safe landing, exited the runway and passengers disembarked,” a Heathrow airport spokesperson told BBC News.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, two tyres fitted to a Qantas 737-800 blew during take-off for a flight from Sydney to Canberra. None of the 92 passengers on board was hurt and they were all rebooked on to later flights. “The flight crew acted in accordance with their training,” said a Qantas spokeswoman.

The incident comes less than two months after a similar incident involving a Qantas jet in Los Angeles, when a Qantas 747-400 carrying 217 passengers blew three of its tyres during take-off on a Los Angeles to Sydney flight on March 26.

Back in 2006, a third Qantas 747 blew its tyres on take-off on a Frankfurt-bound flight from Singapore Airport. German and Australian authorities concluded there was no safety concern warranting major investigation.