Saudi plane averts disaster after tyre failure

Riyadh : A Saudi Arabian aircraft on a domestic flight this week averted a disaster and landed safely after a tyre failure that triggered panic among the passengers for several hours, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The aircraft had taken off from the western Red Sea port of Jeddah more than two hours behind schedule on Wednesday night en route to the central town of Qasseem but failed to land, Burnews Arabic language daily said.

Seeking to reassure the passengers, the pilot told them he would head for the northern town of Hail for landing because of a slight technical problem.

But the jet again could not land in Hail, prompting the pilot to steer towards the western town of Madina, the paper said.

“The plane again could not land in Madina because of the tire failure…the pilot then decided to head back to Qasseem,” it said.

“He kept hovering over Qasseem before landing safely but there was a delay of more than two hours after take off…the passengers said they had been through a horror trip for more than four hours,” the paper added without specifying the type of the aircraft or the number of passengers on board.