Tire Blowout Upon Landing: Plane Lands on the Lawn

This was merely an incident with no consequences other than property damage—and even that was very minor. Nevertheless, on Friday, September 25, a BN2 aircraft operated by Trans Aguilla Airways landed on the grassy area bordering the runway at Saint-Barthélemy Airport. The cause of the deviation from the landing path was a flat tire on the nose wheel of the front landing gear. The incident was quickly brought under control by the airport’s technical crews. It took some time to move the plane from the grassy area back onto the runway and then tow it to a secure area. During the operation, an Air Inter Iles Tecnam and a Tradewind PC12 were placed on hold. It took only a few minutes before traffic—which, fortunately, was very light in September—could resume as normal.