Passengers praise crew, landing

The passengers on board the Air Malta aircraft that made an emergency landing at Glasgow on Wednesday night after suffering a burst tyre on take-off were relieved to land in Malta yesterday after experiencing the "longest three hours" of their lives.

The Boeing 737, with 143 people on board, took off on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. but was forced back within minutes to circle the airport and burn fuel after a tyre burst.

This was the second B737 in Air Malta's fleet to suffer a burst tyre in 19 days and the third emergency landing involving the airline in the space of a month.

Full-scale emergency procedures were activated at Glasgow airport as soon as the crew reported a suspected problem with a tyre when Air Malta flight KM197 took off, though the passengers were not told of the problem immediately.

The Scottish media reported that the B737 also suffered hydraulic failure, which prevented the crew from controlling the reverse thrust and braking properly, though the airline said it could not confirm this as it was still investigating the incident.

At one point during the flight, the Air Malta pilots flew the aircraft at low level to enable engineers on the ground to assess the extent of the damage.

There was still a good tyre on the main landing gear and the pilot was able to land safely according to standard procedure.

The passengers, who had been told to take their shoes off, remove anything sharp from their pockets and go into the brace position, broke into applause when the plane finally landed. They were offered overnight accommodation at a nearby hotel before Air Malta sent a replacement aircraft.

There was relief on the faces of passengers as they walked into the arrivals lounge yesterday at 4 p.m. Passengers who spoke to The Times heaped praise on the way the cabin crew handled the incident, though there were some conflicting versions of what went on when the original flight from Glasgow had taken off.

Matthew Miceli Demajo, 27, said he realised at once there was something wrong after the aircraft twice did a U-turn in the first 15 minutes.

"The scariest part was when the aircraft descended to what seemed to be a couple of metres from the runway and we actually thought it was going to land. When it shot back up into the sky, we thought the runway wasn't long enough for the damage that had been caused," Mr Miceli Demajo told The Times.

"Of course, every thought starts racing through your mind in those moments, especially when we were about to land."

However, Mr Miceli Demajo described the landing as "perfect" and pointed out that the incident would not stop him from flying.

Andrew Keegan realised there was something wrong about 15 minutes into the flight after being informed by another passenger on board.

"The crew were right not to tell passengers too much about what was going on. But an hour-and-a-half into the flight people started getting uneasy. It was very bumpy and scary, especially for the kids," he said.

His daughter Lindsay was among the children that started crying as the landing approached.

Pierluigi Mollicone said he felt nothing unusual about take-off. But doubts started creeping in when he realised that the aircraft stopped climbing soon afterwards.

At one point, he said, the captain announced there was something wrong with the landing gear and though the plane was fit for flying, it needed to burn the fuel, and head back to Glasgow.

"People were calm and the crew prepared passengers for an emergency landing."

Mr Mollicone said he only realised the extent of the emergency when he descended from the aircraft and saw the several emergency vehicles. "We even found out that there were some helicopters accompanying our descent."

It was not exactly the best honeymoon start for Colin Walker, 29, and his new wife Joy, 28.

"It was calm on board and the cabin crew handled it really well even if they didn't really tell us much when we were on board. I was overcome with relief when the aircraft came to a standstill. I just wanted the plane to stop," Mr Walker told The Times.

He said he did not feel uneasy travelling so soon after the incident. "Of course I wouldn't have fancied travelling on the same aircraft but when we found out it was a new plane we had no problem with that."

Describing the landing as "rough", Ms Walker joined the other passengers in applause when the ordeal was over.

Fr J. Mercieca one of seven priests on board the flight, said: "We were told to assist all passengers just in case things got out of control. We didn't know what was going on, especially when the aircraft had to descend to enable the engineers to assess what was going wrong. But all ended well."

It was another B737-300 which burst a tyre when it left Malta for Moscow on August 13.

An Air Malta Airbus 320 aircraft made another emergency landing at Rome's Fiumicino airport on August 4 after a technical hitch in its air-conditioning system.