KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – An American Airlines flight traveling from Miami experienced blown main landing gear tires shortly after landing at Argyle International Airport (AIA) in Kingstown, St. Vincent, on Monday. The incident occurred during the aircraft’s landing, but no further details about the event have been provided.
There were no immediate official reports of injuries or the number of passengers on board.
Flight 909 came to an abrupt stop shortly after landing with eyewitnesses saying that they heard “a loud bang when it was passing the terminal building, and then saw smoke coming from the landing gear area”.
There has been no official communication from the AIA authorities or the airline as yet, but a local aviation expert with knowledge of the situation told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it appears that it was “especially windy” at the airport, situated on the country’s east coast.
He theorized that the plane, on landing, bounced back into the air, blowing the two tyres on the left main landing gear. Firefighters responded as the aircraft continued towards the other end of the runway before coming to a halt.
CMC has been reliably informed that a local aviation maintenance company was engaged in replacing the damaged tires on twin-jet Boeing 737 MAX 8.
Virgin Atlantic, which was arriving from London via Barbados, circled the aerodrome for some time before returning to the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados. The outbound Virgin Atlantic flight to London from has since been cancelled.
This is the first major incident at the airport, which was opened on February 14, 2017.
In 2021 an American Airlines flight aborted its take off, while taxing down the runaway. While there had been speculation that the incident resulted from a bird strike, neither the AIA nor the airline had commented on the matter.
