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Polonia Airport closed for seven hours over Batavia jet's burst tire
The Polonia Airport authority in Medan, North Sumatra, closed the airport for nearly seven hours Sunday after a tire burst on a Batavia Air plane upon landing
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The Polonia Airport authority in Medan, North Sumatra, closed the airport for nearly seven hours Sunday after a tire burst on a Batavia Air plane upon landing.
None of the 147 on board the company's A320 Airbus was injured, but flights were either diverted or returned to their origins due to the closure, Antara news agency reported.
Polonia Airport general manager Alexius Kismoyo said the closure was necessary to investigate the cause of the burst tire.
Pilot Capt. Heri W said he was scheduled to land his jet at 9:15 a.m. local time, but due to instrument indications of a technical problem he decided to fly in a holding pattern to investigate.
Finding nothing after about 40 minutes, he decided to land. As the plane touched down, however, the left tire burst, leaving the plane to coast and come to a stop in the middle of several runways.
The airport was immediately closed for flights, reopening only at 4:27 p.m. after the jet was pulled from the runway.
One of the passengers was quoted by Antara as saying the plane had circled above the city for about an hour before landing and that the crew had informed those on board that there was a problem.
Polonia Airport administrative head Yuli Sudoso said there was little possibility that the tire burst was caused by the runway as that area of the runway had just been repaved a few months ago.
"We are still investigating the cause of the accident," Yuli said.
Batavia Airlines spokesman Eddy Haryono said Sunday the incident was caused by the malfunctioning of the aircraft's braking system.
The braking system apparently failed during the flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Jakarta, to Medan, he said.
"When the braking system was used upon landing, it did not work. So the incident was not caused by the burst of one of the plane's tires," Eddy said as quoted by detik.com.
Eddy said the plane had to be lifted to replace its tire before being driven to the apron. The work was finished at 4 p.m.
"Now the aircraft is parked along the apron of Polonia Airport," said Eddy.
