747 blows 4 tires, aborts takeoff from LAX

None of the 232 passengers or crew hurt on Australia-bound jetliner

LOS ANGELES - An jetliner carrying hundreds of passengers blew four tires while trying to take off at Los Angeles International Airport and got stranded on the runway, an official said Tuesday.

None of the 232 passengers or crew on Qantas Flight 12 to Sydney, Australia, was hurt in the incident late Monday, airport spokeswoman Treva Miller said.

Flight operations at the airport were not expected to be affected.

The pilot aborted takeoff after he noticed a warning light go off as he took the Boeing 747-400 down the runway at 11:05 p.m. local time, Miller said. The plane came to rest, stuck on an adjacent runway.

Emergency personnel got everyone off the jet without incident.

The passengers were taken to hotels and would be placed on flights to Sydney later Tuesday, a Qantas official said.

Four blown tires at once? Sabotage?

If he blew the tires as they were slowing down, that would not surprise me. He aborted due to a warning light, not blown tires. Depending how fast he was going when he aborted, blowing 4 tires was pretty easy.

Oh, I probably should have read the article. :)

the 747 would have likely melted fuse plugs in the tires due to the heat generated by the abort. Anything above 100kts would generate sufficent heat at high takeoff weights. In order to blow tires you would have had a locked wheel .