An American Airlines Boeing 727, crippled by a flat tire blown on take off from Washington, D.C., circled O`Hare International Airport for about an hour Thursday night before landing safely with all of its 72 passengers and 7 crew members uninjured, officials said.
Flight 1027 arrived at O`Hare from Washington`s Dulles International Airport, where the plane apparantly taxied over some debris on the runway, according to Thomas Stack, a spokesman for American Airlines.
”The passengers reported hearing a popping noise on takeoff from Dulles,” Stack said. ”Dulles officials later found shreads of rubber on the runway and determined that a tire had been blown.”
Red Ramos, 37, a car mechanic who lives in San Francisco and was visiting friends in Washington, remembered hearing a ”loud thump” and experiencing a bumpy ride as the plane pulled away from Dulles.
More Top Picks Navee Gt3 Pro
Ramos said flight attendants told passengers that they had lost a chunk of rubber from one of the plane`s tires. Once in the air, he said, the flight was smooth, though many passengers were alarmed by the crew members` repeated review of emergency procedures.
”That`s what was frightening, when they kept telling us those instructions,” Ramos said.
Even though one of the two tires on the right main landing gear of the plane had been damaged, the crew decided to continue on to O`Hare, rather than return to Dulles.
”Either way, they were going to have to land with the flat tire,”
Stack said. ”The crew consulted with the (American Airlines) main system operation control center in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and they determined that it was safe to continue on.”
Crew members had planned to unload passengers on the runway at O`Hare, but later decided that was unnecessary. Firefighters assigned to the airport were called in to assist in helping passengers off the plane.
”Those were all safety precautions,” Stack said. ”The plane landed and taxied in to the proper arrival gate on its own.”
The aircraft, which was scheduled to arrive at O`Hare at 5:33 p.m., circled the airport waiting for other air traffic to clear out before finally landing just after 6:30 p.m.
”We felt a big bump, but no big deal,” Ramos said.
He said that after the plane landed safely, relieved passengers burst into applause and cheers, many of them calling out thanks to the pilot.