Aircraft tyres in storage at Air Malta withdrawn

Air Malta has removed from service its entire batch of aircraft tyres, two of which led recently to incidents with its jets.

The tyres are to be used to assist both the internal and external investigations being conducted into the incidents, a spokesman for the airline told The Times yesterday.

An Air Malta flight from Glasgow turned back and landed safely at Glasgow Airport a week ago after fears that one of its tyres had burst. The Boeing 737, with 143 people on board had to circle the airport for three hours to burn fuel before landing.

The passengers landed at Malta 15 hours later, after the airline had sent a replacement aircraft. Another Air Malta jet with 122 passengers was also forced to do a U-turn after a tyre burst when it left Malta for Moscow on August 13.

The spokesman confirmed yesterday that both incidents were triggered after a "tyre failure on take off". He would not however comment as to how many tyres have been withdrawn or what the two incidents had cost the airline.

Costs in such incidents are usually heavy, involving for instance wasted fuel, deployment of emergency services and the despatch of replacement aircraft.

A Lufthansa Boeing departing from Malta on Monday evening was forced to make an emergency landing at Palermo after the pilot reported engine trouble. The aircraft was on its way to Stuttgart.

According to the Italian media, all the necessary emergency procedures were taken at the Sicilian airport, but the jet made a normal landing. The aircraft is now undergoing tests to determine the cause of the trouble.