Air India Boeing 787 Tire Burst Incident After Takeoff from Delhi

On July 28, 2023, an Air India Boeing 787-8, registered as VT-NAA, faced an unexpected situation during takeoff from Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), India, to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), France. The aircraft’s tire burst, leading to the need for an emergency diversion back to its origin airport.

According to India’s ANI News, air traffic control (ATC) notified the Boeing 787’s crew members of tire debris on the departure runway shortly after take-off. Consequently, the Air India flight AI143 had to circle for over 35 minutes before returning to DEL.

An Air India spokesperson informed ANI News that the affected aircraft underwent thorough checks at DEL while the airline made alternative travel arrangements for passengers. Eventually, flight AI143 resumed its journey towards CDG at 9:09 PM local time (UTC +5:30) using another Air India Boeing 787-8, registered as VT-AND, which had previously completed a flight from Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) to DEL. VT-AND landed at CDG at 2:05 AM local time (UTC +2).

As of the latest update, VT-NAA remains grounded at DEL.

The Boeing 787-8 aircraft, delivered to Air India in August 2017, has accumulated a total of 21,380 flight hours (FH) and 3,062 flight cycles (FC) as of April 30, 2023, based on ch-aviation.com data. The website estimated that in May 2023, the aircraft had 445 FH and 49 FC, and in June 2023, it had 421.5 FH and 47 FC.

Like other Air India 787s, VT-NAA is equipped with a General Electric (GE) GEnx engine.