First responders in Atlanta rushed to an airport runway Tuesday after an aircraft experienced a harrowing landing failure, with all eight of its landing tires bursting the moment the plane touched down, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
LATAM Flight 2482, a Boeing 767, landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Tuesday evening after a seven-hour flight from Lima, Peru.
According to Fox 5, citing a flight expert, the unusual incident may not have been the result of a hard landing, but a possible malfunction in the aircraft’s automatic braking system.
Images from the aftermath revealed dislodged cabin panels and a bathroom door torn from its hinges, according to the local station.
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No injuries were reported after the incident, but airport staff who witnessed the landing described hearing multiple popping sounds as the wheels hit the tarmac followed by visible smoke.
“I was at work and my coworkers and I heard a couple of loud bangs and saw a lot of smoke,” a user posted on social media Tuesday. “One of the airport ops guys told us that the plane landed so hard that all the tires blew out.”
Another traveler noted that, as the plane decelerated, another passenger recalled the unsettling sensation of wheels “rattling on the tarmac” for an unusually long time, Fox 5 reported.
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The 221 people on board were reportedly stranded on the tarmac for two hours before being transported to the terminal by bus.
Speaking to Fox 5, retired Capt. Paul Carr, who flew 767s for years, called the incident “very odd.” The former Delta pilot said that while tire blowouts are relatively common, it is rare for all eight tires to fail at once. He added that a malfunction in the automatic braking system likely triggered the disaster by locking the wheels and generating extreme friction.
“That’s very odd for all eight tires to blow on a landing,” Carr said. “More than likely, the brake system logic … malfunctioned, and it locked up all the brakes and just caused them to blow.”
The incident prompted a temporary runway shutdown but did not significantly alter overall airport operations.
Fox News reached out to LATAM and the Federal Aviation Administration for more information.
