Plane forced to make emergency landing in Israel after 'part of wheel falls off'

The flight from Tel Aviv to Prague did a U-turn as it flew over Turkey

Lizzie Dearden
Tuesday 21 April 2015 08:59 BST
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The plane returned to Ben Gurion Airport
The plane returned to Ben Gurion Airport

A plane has been forced to make an emergency landing at Israel’s largest airport after part of a wheel fell off during take-off.

El Al flight 2521 left for Prague as scheduled this morning but did not reach the Czech capital.

Tracking data showed the Boeing 737-800 doing a U-turn around Yalvac, in Turkey, to return to Israel and doing several figure-eights around Ben Gurion International Airport before it could safely land.

Flightradar24 data showed the plane doing a U-turn and flying back to Israel.

Airline El Al, Israel’s flag carrier, told Haaretz the pilot decide to turn the plane around after detecting a ruptured right wheel.

Parts of the tyre had been found on the runway after take-off, the Israel Airports Authority announced.

The plane has safely landed at around 10.15am local time (8.15am BST) and was photographed being surrounded by fire engines.

A spokesperson for El Al told the Jerusalem Post it had 181 passengers and crew on board and the travellers would be transferred on to another flight by the airline.

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