NEWS: American Airlines Flight Grounded Following Tire Explosion and Fire

Traveling can be stressful in and of itself without having to worry about many of the latest issues airplanes have been having.

Boeing has fallen under scrutiny after an Alaska Airlines flight on one of those planes had a midair pressure problem that passengers reported blew out part of the plane’s fuselage. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) conducted an investigation into the incident, but now, they may have another incident to look into.

An American Airlines plane didn’t take off as planned after a tire blew and caught fire in Tampa on June 10th, according to USA Today. The flight, which was headed to Phoenix, was delayed after the “mechanical issue” occurred.

Airline spokesperson Alfredo Garduño shared that the issue involved Boeing 737-800 tires. Emergency services were on the scene right around 8AM after being notified that a tire had blown and caught on fire. Luckily, all 174 passengers and six crew members were “safely deplaned and were bussed to the terminal,” Garduño said.

The passengers were later rebooked on other flights to Phoenix.

Garduño also apologized on behalf of the airline and said, “We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

You can see video of the incident in this CBS News clip below:

But, a United Airlines flight heading from Los Angeles to Denver also lost a wheel on takeoff on July 8th. No injuries were reported with this incident, but it goes to show that American Airlines isn’t the only carrier having issues lately.

“The wheel has been recovered in Los Angeles, and we are investigating what caused this event,” United Airlines said.

Should these incidents be a cause for concern? Well, the good news is that flying is still one of the safest methods of transportation. According to NPR, the risk of boarding a fatal flight anywhere in the world is 1 in 13.4 million. Not only are planes built with redundancies in mind to remain safe even if something goes wrong, but pilots and flight crew are well-trained on what to do when problems arise.

If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!

We’ll be on the lookout for more travel news that could impact your next trip, so make sure you stay tuned to AllEars for the latest.