747 Suffers Major Blowout Departing Runway At Islamabad

Pakistani newspapers call it a major tragedy barely averted. Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-717 was just departing the ground from Islamabad to New York's JFK airport Sunday when its tires blew out. All "ten" of them. At once.  Mind you, there are more than 10 tires on a 747, but whether this means that they lost 10 tires or all of them, they obviously had a pretty hairy day. The 747 has five landing gear assemblies, four mains with four tires each, and a nose gear assembly with "just" two. Losing ten would qualify as a major mess... losing all, even more so.

"All 10 tires of the plane PK-717 burst when it was about to takeoff for New York. The 276 passengers on board, including eight children and 19 crew members, are safe," said an Imran Gardezi, a spokesman for PIA at the Islamabad airport.

The pilot aborted the take-off and the jumbo jet came to stop on the runway. And there it sat for hours, as the airport was completely shut down while officials searched the runway for FOD. Incoming flights were diverted to other airports and eleven flights were cancelled altogether. After having its tires replaced, flight PK-717 was expected to depart Islamabad late Sunday night.

There's been no explanation for the massive blowout, nor any indication whether Pakistani officials believe it was an accident or the result of foul play.

FMI: www.piac.com.pk