On Wednesday, June 21st, a Brussels Airlines Airbus A320 experienced a burst tire as it was preparing to depart from Vilnius Airport in Lithuania. The location of the incident, which blocked a key taxiway, resulted in an hours-long flight suspension and several diverted flights.
Incident details
The Vilnius Airport incident occurred at 16:20 and involved Brussels Airlines' flight SN2372. This five-times-weekly service connects Brussels with Vilnius using either an Airbus A319 or A320. The June 21st incident involved an A320-200 registered OO-SNI.
Aviation24.be reports that the aircraft, with 175 passengers and six crew onboard, was lining up for departure when it lost its left inner main gear. The website adds that a passenger onboard, speaking with the local press, was quoted as saying:
an explosion was heard, parts of the tire were scattered. At first, passengers were not allowed to move around. Ground crew arrived then everyone was able to leave the aircraft.
There were no injuries due to the incident, and everyone onboard exited the aircraft safely using airstairs.
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Flight diversions followed
The inoperable aircraft and impending flight delay was one significant problem to deal with. However, Vilnius Airport also decided that flights could not operate in and out of the airport with the A320 stuck on a critical taxiway. After the incident, the airport said that a technical assessment of the situation was underway, and preparations were being made to remove the aircraft from the taxiway. Closure of the airport's one and only runway was imposed until 20:00 local time but later adjusted to 21:00. The airport advised the public that the incident would have an impact on scheduled flights from Vilnius to Brussels, Riga, Copenhagen, Vienna, Tel Aviv, and London City Airport.
Flight LO779 was a particularly unfortunate case, as it appears that the aircraft was just minutes away from landing at Vilnius airport. After the incident, the Embraer E190 was put in a holding pattern for 20 minutes on the northwest edge of Vilnius before it finally returned to Warsaw.
All in all, the incident affected 24 flights. Five flights, including Wizz Air's W68052 from Milan to Vilnius, were diverted to Kaunas Airport - a mere 53 miles (85.3 km) away. One flight was redirected to land in Riga. Nine flights that were supposed to depart Vilnius, including Wizz Air's W68094 service to Tel Aviv were canceled. Additionally, many services that were supposed to land in Vilnius but had not departed from their respective origin airports were simply delayed by multiple hours.
According to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, Lithuanian Airports announced the following on Wednesday night:
"With the permission of the airline and the aircraft manufacturer, the aircraft was removed from the taxiway on the runway. The runway at Vilnius Airport was opened for operations from 20:40,"
OO-SNI remains on the ground in Vilnius, with Brussels Airlines dispatching a replacement A320 to resume flight SN2372.
Sources: LRT, FlightRadar24.com, Planespotters.net, Aviation24.be