Belgrade Airport Shut Down for 7 Hours After EgyptAir Tire Burst
Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) in Serbia was shut down for about seven hours Wednesday morning after a tire on an Egyptair aircraft burst upon landing.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft landed at 4:11am local time, blocking the airport's runway after the blown-out tire left it stuck in place. It took airport authorities seven hours to figure out how to remove the plane. During the closure, all incoming flights were diverted to nearby airports — most to Budapest, Hungary (BUD), or the Serbian city of Niš (INI), the AP reports. Flights resumed at Belgrade at 11:20am.
The aircraft, registered SU-GCO, was reportedly operating Egyptair Flight 3100 from Cairo (CAI) to Belgrade. Photos of the incident show the plane's two tires on its right side were completely flattened.
The Belgrade tire burst follow several similar high-profile aircraft tire blowout incidents, including one on a private jet carrying rapper Post Malone and a landing in Peru with no front wheels that caused a shower of sparks.
