KRALENDIJK- On Tuesday afternoon, flight 7Z 671 of EZ Air was confronted with a situation during landing at Flamingo Airport, in which the pilots had to take corrective action.

The flight crew applied the correct procedure to land the aircraft safely, but had to apply the brakes harder than usual.

After the aircraft taxied to the apron, it was found that the tires of the main landing gear were deflating, preventing the aircraft from taking off again for the rest of the planned flights. EZ Air director René Winkel denies reports in the media that the aircraft suffered blowouts as a result of a hard landing. “In the event of a tire blowout, the aircraft would not have been able to taxi to the apron or leave the runway at all. However, the Saab aircraft we fly have a safety mechanism in the wheel rims that slowly deflates the tires as a precaution when there is potential overheating. This involves a fusible plug that melts in cases like these, and allow the tires to deflate in a controlled manner”.

Passengers of the relevant flight were picked up later in the evening by a replacement aircraft to transport them to Aruba and Curaçao respectively. The technical department of EZ immediately started replacing the affected tires. The aircraft departed from Bonaire shortly after midnight on Tuesday to be flown back to Curaçao, where it will be completely checked before being deployed again.

Shaken

According to Winkel, the passengers were not in any danger. “We understand that there are passengers who were a bit shaken when the landing proceeded differently than usual. Of course, we regret this. However, our experienced and well-trained Cockpit Crew responded adequately to the situation, and thus averted a potentially dangerous situation or damage to the aircraft”.