An Air China jumbo jet made an emergency landing on Friday after
blowing out at least one tire on takeoff from Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX), airport officials said.
The Boeing 747, which was headed for Beijing, made the
uneventful emergency landing at 3:28 AM, said an operations officer
with the Federal Aviation Administration's Western Operations
Center.
The airliner, Flight CA 984, was scheduled to leaves LAX at 1:
40 AM, arriving in Beijing at 5:20 AM Saturday, according to a
flight schedule on the Web site operated by Los Angeles World
Airports, the city agency that operates LAX.
It was unclear as to how many tires were involved in the mishap,
but tire debris was found on the runway after the landing,
according to airport authorities.
The two-deck aircraft landed without sparks, according to a
camera crew at the scene.
At 4:30 AM, officials were preparing to unload the passengers
and shuttle them back to a terminal, the operations officer
said.
No one was injured, said a Los Angeles Fire Department
captain.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2007)