A technical incident wreaked havoc at Abidjan airport, Ivory Coast, when two tires of an Air Algérie plane burst on takeoff, paralyzing air traffic.
This “tire problem on takeoff” that occurred on Saturday morning prevented other planes from taking off and landing at the Félix Houphouet Boigny international airport, according to what the Ivorian media “L’Info Express” reported.
The Boeing 737-800 on board which was carrying 85 passengers and which was the victim of this incident was due to reach Algiers after a stopover in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou, the local media said.
The Algerian airline confirmed the incident to the electronic media TSA, reporting a “burst of two wheels of the main landing gear” of the aircraft, which forced it to remain on the landing strip.
The replacement wheels were “sent from the mother base in Algiers”, according to Air Algérie which indicated to TSA that the 85 passengers were taken care of throughout the delay caused to the flight, i.e. more than six hours.
Note also that two other technical incidents affected two Air Algérie planes in mid-flight last week and at the end of August on two direct flights Constantine-Lyon and Algiers-Istanbul.