A United Airlines Boeing 737-900 bound for Phoenix blew a tire during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on Thursday, forcing all 161 passengers and six crew members to evacuate onto the runway and board buses to the terminal.
The incident happened around 1:45 p.m. when United Flight 455 attempted to leave O'Hare. The FAA said the aircraft "safely aborted takeoff" after the tire failed. No injuries were reported. But the disabled jet sat on the runway long enough to ripple through one of the nation's busiest airports, delaying inbound flights by an average of 25 minutes as of 3:50 p.m., NBC Chicago reported.
The FAA confirmed it is investigating the blowout. The agency did not identify a cause.
After the aborted takeoff, all 167 people aboard, 161 passengers and a crew of six, climbed off the jet and onto the active runway. Buses ferried them back to the terminal. Video posted to social media showed a large emergency response at the airport, with several buses standing by to move the stranded travelers.
Around 4 p.m., United Airlines said it was arranging a replacement aircraft to fly the passengers to Phoenix later that day. The airline did not say what caused the tire to fail or whether the substitute flight departed on schedule.
The FAA noted that flights arriving at O'Hare faced average delays of 25 minutes because of a disabled aircraft on a runway. The agency stopped short of confirming that the disabled plane was Flight 455, saying only that the connection had not been immediately verified.
Tire failures on commercial jets are not common, but when they happen during a takeoff roll, the highest-speed, highest-stress phase of any flight, the margin for error shrinks fast. Pilots train to abort at those speeds, and in this case the crew brought the aircraft to a stop without reported injuries. That outcome matters. So does the fact that 161 paying customers ended up standing on a runway in the middle of a Chicago summer afternoon instead of cruising toward Phoenix.
The FAA investigation will presumably examine the tire's maintenance history, the aircraft's service record, and the conditions on the runway at the time of the blowout. None of that information has been released.
Air travelers deserve answers about why a tire on a mainline United jet failed at the worst possible moment, and whether the maintenance regime that cleared that aircraft for service held up its end of the bargain.
