Early today, a Turkish AirlinesBoeing 737-800 was evacuated after multiple tires burst during landing at Antakya-Hatay Airport (HTY) in Hatay, Turkey.
Tires burst on landing
Turkish Airlines flight 2256 departed Istanbul at 01:43 local time, headed for Antakya-Hatay Airport in Hatay. Upon landing, multiple tires burst, leading to an emergency evacuation of the aircraft while still on the runway. According to Twitter user @jacdecnew, there were 104 passengers onboard, and an additional six crew members. No injuries were reported during the evacuation process.
On the ground, passengers were evacuated via slides. Emergency personnel sprayed the landing gear with foam to prevent further damage, as the gears had overheated.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, is registered as TC-JVN. It is just six years old, with the manufacturer serial number 60018. At the moment, it appears the aircraft is still on the ground in Antakya. The 737 was due to fly back to Istanbul shortly after landing in Antakya, but flightradar24 shows that the flight was canceled.
Simple Flying has reached out to Turkish Airlines for an official statement and additional information. The statement provided to us by Turkish was also published on Twitter,
“Our Flight TK2256 aircraft operating on the Istanbul (IST) – Hatay (HTY) route suffered a burst tire while landing. As a result, one of the landing gears of the aircraft experienced overheating, to which fire brigade on the scene responded promptly and ensured that it cooled down. Our passengers and crew were safely evacuated without any problems to their physical conditions.” - Yahya Üstün, Senior Vice President Media Relations
Recent Turkish Airlines News
Turkish Airlines recently announced that it will be relaunching two routes to Afghanistan in March 2023. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-2021, airline operations have looked completely different than they did just one month before. Most foreign airlines cut flights, and some routes were reduced.
Currently, flights to Kabul and Mazār-i-Sharīf are available for booking on the airline's website, with operations set to resume in March. One peculiar thing to note is that the website only shows the first bookable service to Kabul on March 27, but the first bookable flight from Kabul is available one day before. The Istanbul - Kabul route will ber serviced daily by the airline's Airbus A330-300 aircraft, with a capacity for 289 passengers.
Flights to Mazār-i-Sharīf will be operated by the airline's Boeing 737-900ER aircraft with a capacity for 151 passengers, three times weekly. According to Turkish's website, the route will commence from March 29.
This article originally appeared in SImple Flying
Photo: Getty Images