An American Airlines plane blew a tire and burst into flames during takeoff in Florida on Wednesday, the latest in a series of such incidents.
The flight, which departed from Tampa to Phoenix, was delayed after the “mechanical problem” on the runway just before takeoff, airline spokesman Alfredo Garduño told USA TODAY on Wednesday. Garduño said the problem was related to the Boeing 737-800’s tires.
Emergency crews arrived on the scene just before 8 a.m. after receiving a report that a tire had blown loose and caught fire, Tampa International Airport spokesman Joshua Gillin told the Tampa Bay Times.
Everyone on board, including 174 passengers and six crew members, was “safely removed from the plane and bused to the terminal,” Garduño said. No other flight operations were affected by the incident, the Times reported.
All passengers were rebooked on other flights to Phoenix.
“We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Garduño said.
Another airline recently lost a tire
American Airlines isn’t the only airline to report a loose tire. United Airlines also reported a lost tire during takeoff early Monday morning.
A United Airlines plane en route from Los Angeles to Denver lost a 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 were reported to the 174 passengers and crew on board in connection with the incident, Bloomberg reported.
“The wheel was recovered in Los Angeles and we are investigating the cause of this incident,” United Airlines said. No additional details about the tire were immediately available.
The lost tire is just one of several incidents United Airlines has disclosed in the past year that have prompted a federal safety investigation into the airline. United Airlines remains under “enhanced oversight” by the Federal Aviation Administration, which was called in to conduct an in-depth investigation into the airline’s operations, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told USA TODAY on Monday.
David Evans, an FAA-certified pilot and flight instructor, previously told USATODAY that losing an airplane tire is “rare.” And that “these types of things happen every once in a while, but at the end of the day, it’s usually not a big deal.”