PORT-OF-SPAIN – Engineers repaired a Virgin Atlantic ‘jumbo jet’ following an accident in which it blew a tire at Tobago’s airport last night, and the plane is due to take off tomorrow morning, according to media reports here.
The Boeing 747-400, bound for London Gatwick airport, had ventured onto a section of tarmac that had been closed for construction, bursting a tire and leaving over 400 passengers stranded in Trinidad’s sister isle, among them the soca artiste Machel Montano.
The incident left Virgin Atlantic Flight VF52 straddling the runway, and forced the closure of the ANR Robinson airport at Crown Point.
The airline’s engineers arrived in Tobago this afternoon and changed the wheels in the landing gear, the state-owned CNMG radio and television reported.
The Trinidad and Tobago Airports Authority told CNMG that two engineers, working with a local engineer, assessed and repaired the damage to the jet’s landing gear.
Passengers were told by text message sent to their cellphones to await flight information in their hotel rooms, but some of them turned up at the airport anxious to return to London, CNMG said.
The Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority was investigating the accident. (CMC)
