Melbourne Airport. Photo /Getty Images
An Etihad Airways plane aborted its take-off after its wheels reportedly “exploded” on a Melbourne Airport runway.
The plane carrying 289 passengers, caused significant delays and “disruptions” to flights at the busy Australian airport.
Etihad Flight EY461 was due to take off on Sunday evening, bound for Abu Dhabi, but was forced to return to the terminal after the incident.
The Herald Sun reported a “technical” issue occurred.
According to the Daily Mail, a passenger on board told 3AW (a Melbourne-based radio station) that the plane “had to slam on the emergency brakes” after the landing gear “apparently caught fire”.
All passengers were required to leave the plane and return to the terminal.
There were no reported injuries to the passengers or crew.
It is believed that two tyres “exploded” just before 6.15pm on Sunday night, with fire engines descending on the scene shortly afterwards.
The reason for the explosion is yet to be established but the Daily Mail reported that “smoke from its landing gear caused two wheels to burst”.
A Melbourne Airport spokesperson confirmed the plane had “rejected take-off”, adding that “the Aviation Rescue and Firefighting Service responded to a request from the aircraft and deployed firefighting foam as a precaution”.
The plane remains grounded.
“Due to damage to the aircraft’s tyres, we have been unable to tow it off the runway.”
“Repairs are currently under way. All passengers safely disembarked the aircraft and were bussed to the terminal yesterday evening.”
Etihad Airways also released a statement via X (formerly Twitter) stating “technical reasons” were the cause of the halted take-off.
The airline added: “the flight crew decided to reject the take-off for technical reasons and emergency services attended as a precaution”.
“The safety and comfort of our guests and crew remains our highest priority.”
The airline is making alternative arrangements for affected passengers.
As of Monday morning, the airport has one runway operating for both arrival and departure flights. So far there have been no cancellations reported, but disruptions are ongoing.
The incident comes eight days after Jeju Air Flight 2216 suffered dysfunctional landing gear and crashed into a concrete berm at Muan International Airport in South Korea, killing 179 (out of 181) passengers onboard.
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