The tyres of a plane belonging to the Egyptian airline “Fly Egypt”, coming from Hurghada, exploded upon landing at Cluj-Napoca International Airport in Romania; Resulting in a fire in the rear of the landing gear.
The plane a Boeing 737-700 with Registration SU-TMM was coming from Hurghada Airport in Egypt to Cluj-Napoca Airport, Romania, and was performing flight number FT 3101 on 15 October 2021.
The airport director David Chissio announced, during a television interview, that the plane was carrying 113 passengers, and that the four tires in the rear landing gear had crashed. He noted that the likely cause may be a very rapid decline; But the examinations that will be carried out by specialists will confirm or deny this.
According to the Inspectorate of Emergency Situations, the plane landed on the runway of Cluj-Napoca International Airport with a fire burning in the rear of the landing gear.
“The fire was put out by the State Security Protection Unit. Forces from the Security Support Unit were deployed in Cluj. All the passengers were evacuated normally. At the moment, no one needs medical care,” the inspectorate said.
The sources also indicated that “the pilot was surprised by the tire explosion during landing, and was able to maintain the plane’s path as much as possible, and that the losses included hitting the plane’s tyres only, and the runway was closed to withdraw the plane for maintenance and disrupted the airport for 3 hours.”
The head of the Civil Aviation Authority in Egypt, Ashraf Nuer, ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the accident.
A source in the Egyptian Civil Aviation said, “The plane was allowed to take off from Romania without passengers, after the repair process was carried out, and air safety was established.”
By Victor Shalton Odhiambo
