Today, a LATAM Boeing 787-9, registration CC-BGP, suffered multiple tire blowouts while landing in Santiago de Chile’s International Airport. No one was injured due to the incident, but the aircraft is currently under maintenance.
What happened?
LATAM’s aircraft was covering the Miami-Santiago route when the incident happened. The plane was landing on runway 17L at Santiago’s airport. According to Jacdec News, the pilots had a heavy landing, which caused the tires to burst.
LATAM Airlines Group sent a statement to Simple Flying regarding the incident. The airline said,
“Following flight’s LA509 landing, which was covering the Miami-Santiago route, one of the tires in the right landing gear blew out. After the incident, the crew positioned the aircraft in a taxiway and activated a remote disembarkment for the passengers.”
The aircraft is currently under inspection, added LATAM.
What about the plane?
This Boeing 787-9 is 1.5 years old, according to ch-aviation’s database. LATAM received the aircraft on December 23, 2019, and is powered by Trent 1000-J2 engines. The plane has a current market value of approximately USD$112.27 million. The leasing company Yamasa Sangyo owns CC-BGP.
The plane can carry up to 303 passengers onboard. It has 219 economy, 54 economy plus, and 30 business seats.
According to RadarBox.com, CC-BGP mainly operates the Santiago-Miami route. In the last 12 months, it has had 412 movements from Santiago’s airport (41.2%). Meanwhile, it has had 316 flights from Miami (31.6%).
The aircraft also has flown to Buenos Aires (7.3%), Los Angeles (5.4%), and Lima (4.2%), per radarbox.com.
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LATAM’s 787 fleet
LATAM Airlines Group currently has 12 Boeing 787-9 and still expects to receive two more in the near future. Initially, the airline had to receive six more Dreamliners but agreed to reduce the order as it continues with its fleet consolidation program.
LATAM also recently rejected the leasing contracts of four 787-9s (along with the entire A350 fleet).
The South American giant also has ten Boeing 787-8 in its fleet. The remainder of its long-haul fleet is composed of ten B777-300s and 28 B767-300ER. LATAM already expects to reduce its B767 fleet by converting up to ten of these planes into freighters.
LATAM currently has a fleet of 285 commercial aircraft, according to ch-aviation. Its single-aisle fleet is composed of 45 A319-100, 117 A320-200,, 12 A320-200n, and 42 A321-200.
Second tire incident in 2021
This is the second tire incident LATAM has had this year. In February, a Boeing 777 belonging to LATAM Airlines Brasil suffered tire damage.
Prior to that, a LATAM Airbus A320 also suffered many damages after a bird strike. The plane was flying out of Brasilia when the crew reported a bird strike which caused unreliable airspeed.
Also, in January, LATAM’s flight LA3142 between Sao Paulo and Vitória had to be canceled following an engine failure.
None of these incidents are related; it is only a quick recap of LATAM’s latest issues.
What do you think about LATAM’s latest incident? Let us know in the comments.