Southwest Passengers ‘Crying and Screaming’ as Boeing Plane Forced to Make Emergency Landing After Tire Failure

A Southwest flight was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday after a tire blew out.

Passengers were ‘screaming and crying’ as the Boeing 737-700 made an emergency landing at Denver International Airport on Monday.

KDVR reported:

A Southwest flight had to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport after one of the tires failed during takeoff.

The airline sent a statement to FOX31 saying Southwest Flight 225 had to return to Denver after the pilot declared an emergency on Monday. According to FlightAware, the aircraft was a Boeing 737-700 headed for Phoenix Sky Harbor International.

FlightAware shows the plane took off from DIA at 6:31 p.m. on Monday, however, shortly after, Southwest said one of the tires failed. The plane landed back at DIA at 7:12 p.m.

Southwest said the flight landed “without incident and taxied off the runway.”

“When the flight attendants said we were going to have an emergency landing, we started to panic a little bit. People were definitely crying and screaming and trying to console one another,” passenger Julianna Donadio told 9News.

“We knew we blew a tire, but we didn’t know what the landing gear situation was,” she said. “They started preparing us for crash position, so having our head between our knees, and they were informing the emergency exit line how to open the doors and operate potentially the slides.”