An aborted takeoff on a US Airways flight bound for Florida from Philadelphia International Airport has shutdown PHL. The culprit: a blown tire; the result: smoke billowing out of the engines and a runway evacuation of the 149 passengers and five crew members onboard. No injuries have been reported.
U.S. Airways flight 1702, an Airbus A320, was taking off for Fort Lauderdale just after 6 p.m. when the incident occurs. One witness shared what he viewed on Flyertalk:
Here’s what I saw … at approx 6:26 pm or so, I was in the US Airways Club in Terminal A-West over gate A15, able to see roughly the eastern half of runway 27L. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a plane get 30-50 ft in the air, then come down and bounce on the runway, then be airborne for another 2-3 seconds, then land with more weight towards the front landing gear. Front gear collapsed, sparks on the runway, it then skid out of my line of sight. Light white smoke visible for about 7-10 min afterwards.
A passenger on a nearby plane shared a similar account:
“I saw the plane come down with its landing gear (hitting) the ground abnormally hard and it bounced back into the air. Then it continued to try to land and it went out of my view as I saw a massive cloud of dust come up from behind it.”
So happy to hear that there have been no reported injuries!
Chaos? Seems a bit over stated…