PAL plane with busted tire lands safely in Los Angeles

MANILA, Philippines—A Philippine Airlines flight carrying 418 passengers made an emergency landing at the Los Angeles International Airport Friday (Saturday in Manila) due to a busted tire.

But PAL flight PR102, which originated in Manila, landed safely at 12:12 p.m. (Manila time), PAL said in a statement posted in its official Facebook page.

“All passengers and crew are safe,” the flag carrier said.

“The pilots of the B747-400 aircraft, who routinely fly direct from Manila, requested for an emergency landing from the air traffic control,” said PAL.

“It was given the green light to land after it was determined that only one  of the 16 tires of the B747-400 was busted,” it said, denying reports by some news networks in Los Angeles that the plane was suffering from landing gear problems.

After an inspection and replacement of the busted tire, the aircraft is back into regular service and is set to fly non-stop back to Manila (flight PR103) with some delay, PAL said.