from the Associated press, 0709 GMT
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - More than 250 passengers were
evacuated from a Thai Airways jet after a tire blew,
sparking several small fires, during a hard landing
Wednesday at southern Australia's Melbourne airport, an
official said. No injuries were reported.
The Airbus A340 from Bangkok «landed heavily» on the
runway, blowing out a tire, damaging the plane's
undercarriage and sparking the fires, according to Ben
Mitchell, a spokesman for Airservices Australia, the
government's air traffic control authority.
None of the 253 passengers on board was injured, the
Melbourne Airport said in a statement.
Mitchell said the plane was smoking as it rolled down the
runway, prompting air traffic controllers to activate a
«crash alarm.»
Fire and emergency services crews approached the plane
within 90 seconds of landing and extinguished the small
fires, he said. All passengers were evacuated on an
external stairway and taken to the terminal by bus,
Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the plane's crew had not reported any
problems with the landing gear before touching down.
Graham O'Donohue, from Melbourne, said he watched the
plane's landing on his in-flight television monitor.
«In the last few hundred feet, the plane lurched over
and, based on what I was looking at on the camera, the
runway was over there,» he said, indicating that the plane
appeared to be diagonal to the runway.
«We hit the tarmac too hard. It was all pretty calm but
fishtailing gets a bit scary,» he added.
Danny Wong, from Mornington Peninsula in southern Victoria
state, said he feared for his infant daughter's safety as
he held her in his lap.
«We got thrown from side to side,» he said, adding that
it was the roughest landing he had experienced.
A spokesman for Australia's Transport Safety Bureau said
the Thai Airways jet had landed in heavy crosswinds and
that the incident was being investigated. He did not give
his name due to bureau policy.
The incident shut down Melbourne Airport for almost two
hours and many flights were delayed.