A Southwest Boeing 737-700 was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport, reports say.
The incident left passengers aboard the plane ‘screaming and crying’ as the plane took an abrupt diversion back to the airport.
Fox News reported: “When the flight attendants said we were going to have an emergency landing, we started to panic a little bit,” passenger Julianna Donadio told KDVR.
“People were definitely crying and screaming and trying to console one another.”
“We knew we blew a tire, but we didn’t know what the landing gear situation was,” she added, describing a loud noise during takeoff.
“They started preparing us for crash position, so having our head between our knees, and they were informing the emergency exit line how to open the doors and operate potentially the slides.”
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson told FOX Business that “a tire failed during takeoff.”
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“Following standard Safety procedures, the Pilots declared an emergency prior to landing. The flight landed without incident and taxied off the runway,” the spokesperson added. “A separate aircraft operated the scheduled flight to Phoenix.”
“We thank our Flight Crew for their professionalism and our Customers for their patience,” Southwest Airlines also said.
“When we landed everyone was cheering and clapping,” Donadio told KDVR.
KDVR reported: FlightAware shows the plane took off from DIA at 6:31 p.m. on Monday, however, shortly after, Southwest said one of the tires failed. The plane landed back at DIA at 7:12 p.m.
Southwest said the flight landed “without incident and taxied off the runway.”
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