On a recent flight from Harare, Zimbabwe to Cape Town, South Africa, a RwandAir Bombardier with registration 9XR-WI had to abort takeoff at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. The left landing gear tire had burst during acceleration, forcing the crew to reject takeoff at high speed.
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Fortunately, all 65 passengers and 8 crew members were able to evacuate the aircraft safely with no injuries reported. However, the incident caused a temporary disruption of service at RGMIA as the aircraft blocked the runway.
After the tire burst was quickly attended to, the RwandAir plane cleared the runway but did not proceed to Cape Town. Instead, it taxied to a holding area to clear the runway. However, the aircraft is still grounded at RGMIA, and engineers are working to fix it. Ethiopian Airlines flight 873 from Addis Ababa to Harare had to be held near Harare for 1 hour and 21 minutes (from 1239 hours to 1420 hours) before diverting to Lusaka(Zambia) due to the blocked runway.
The incident highlights the importance of safety measures in air travel and the need for prompt response in emergency situations. The authorities and airlines involved are taking all necessary measures to ensure that similar incidents are avoided in the future.