Two airplanes blew out their tires after landing in Chicago in separate incidents on the same day, authorities said.
The planes landed about three hours apart on Aug. 17 at O'Hare International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.
The first flight, an American Airlines plane coming in from New York's LaGuardia Airport, landed "safely" at about 2 p.m. local time, the FAA said. The crew of the flight, American Airlines Flight 386, a Boeing 737-800, reported two blown tires, the FAA said. Passengers got off the plane via stairs and were bused to the terminal, FAA said.
American Airlines said in a statement the aircraft had a "tire issue."
"The aircraft has been taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team," American
Airlines said. "We thank our team members for their professionalism and we apologize to our customers for their experience."
Then, at about 5:15 p.m., a second plane also suffered a blown tire after landing at O'Hare, the FAA said. The second plane was United Airlines Flight 739, which was coming in from Omaha, Nebraska. That plane, an Airbus A320, also landed safely, according to the FAA. Passengers also used stairs to deplane and were bused to a terminal.
"After arriving at Chicago O’Hare, United flight 739 sustained tire damage," United Airlines said in a statement.
There were 121 passengers and five crewmembers aboard the United plane, and no injuries were reported.
The FAA said it is investigating both incidents.
Modern airliners have multiple tires on landing gear, so if one is compromised, the others can take the load of a plane, wrote retired US Airways captain John Cox in 2017. If a pilot learns a tire has blown during takeoff, the takeoff will be aborted or they will return to land for an inspection. If a tire blows during landing, landing will proceed as usual, he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 planes blow tires upon landing at Chicago airport
