Sources: American Airlines; CMC
It was back to business-as-usual last night and today at Argyle International Airport (AIA) in St Vincent, following an incident involving an American Airlines flight after it landed there on Monday afternoon.
According to a report from the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), on Monday afternoon, an American Airlines flight travelling from Miami suffered a blow-out of its main landing gear tyres shortly after landing.
“Flight 909 came to an abrupt stop shortly after landing with eyewitnesses saying that they heard ‘a loud bang when it was passing the terminal building, and then saw smoke coming from the landing gear area’,” said the CMC report.
No injuries were reported.
American Airlines issued an official statement on the matter last evening:
“American Airlines flight 909, with service from MIA to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVD), experienced a mechanical issue after landing in SVD. The aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team. We thank our crew for their professionalism and our customers for their understanding. No reported injuries.”
CMC spoke with an aviation expert who noted that it was ‘especially windy’ at the airport, which is situated on the country’s east coast.
The expert theorised that on landing, the plane bounced back into the air, blowing the two tyres on the left main landing gear. Firefighters responded as the aircraft continued towards the other end of the runway before coming to a halt.
CMC also reported that a local aviation maintenance company was engaged to replace the damaged tyres on the twin-jet Boeing 737 MAX 8.
According to the CMC report, a Virgin Atlantic flight that was arriving from London via Barbados at the time of the incident, was forced to circle the aerodrome for a while before returning to the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados. An outbound Virgin Atlantic flight to London from Argyle International was cancelled.
At 7:30 pm (local time) on Monday, the out bound leg of the American Airlines flight, which was supposed to have departed at 5:25 pm (local time) was listed as “delayed”, while the Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL), which was due to operate an 8:00 pm (local time) flight to Port of Spain, was listed as “delayed.
This is the first major incident at the airport, which was opened on February 14, 2017. In 2021 an American Airlines flight aborted its take off, while taxiing down the runaway.