A United airlines Airbus A319 prompted a shutdown at Newark Liberty airport this morning in New Jersey due to an emergency with one of the aircraft’s tires.
It is said that two of the aircraft’s six tires had a flat upon takeoff and due to friction created a smokey atmosphere in the cabin. This prompted the flight crew to make the emergency landing out of precaution for a possible fire.
The flight was United airlines 2098, it’s route of flight took it from New York’s La Guardia airport to Houston George Bush airport in Texas. As stated above the flight made a safe emergency landing into Newark Liberty airport’s runway 22R just across the river from La Guardia in New Jersey. Passengers were evacuated onto the runway and grass next to the runway while fire crews responded to the scene to inspect the aircraft and spray the tires with fire suppression. No passengers or crew were injured in this incident.
The aircraft in question is a Airbus A319 (N837UA)
Twitter post by @jmurray26 shown above shows fire crews responding to the emergency aircraft and passengers being evacuated via emergency slides onto the runway and later being settled in the grass. It is unknown how the passengers where escorted to the terminal but most likely buses were called in to pick up the evacuated passengers.
Just two weeks ago we reported another United emergency that occurred at Newark airport as a 757 had a blown tire and a badly damaged nose gear upon landing. The aircraft battled strong winds upon landing and bounced a few times before landing nose gear first which ultimately damaged the aircraft. It’s likely that United will scrap the aircraft as the 757 is getting up there in age and beginning to be phased out for newer more efficient aircraft. For today’s emergency aircraft, you can expect it to be down in the maintenance hangar for a while for a tire replacement and some further checks before returning to service. Most likely at their Newark hub as that’s where the aircraft made the emergency landing.
Feature image courtesy of @jmurray26 of Twitter
