Air Canada flight makes successful emergency landing in Madrid

MADRID: An Air Canada Boeing 767 aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Madrid's Adolfo Suarez-Barajas airport on Monday evening after suffering damage to its landing gear and one of its engines during take-off.

Flight AC837 took off from Madrid with 128 passengers on board bound for Toronto at approximately 14:30 local time. One of the tires on the landing gear apparently exploded on take-off sending fragments of the tire into the left engine of the two-engine aircraft.

The pilot informed the passengers that the aircraft would have to "return to Barajas airport, but we have the tanks full of fuel and we are going to continue circling in the air to use some of the fuel, so we will be lighter on landing."

The Boeing 767 then spent several hours in a holding pattern to the south of the capital at a height of around 2,000 meters, while a Spanish Air Force F-18 fighter from the Torrejon airbase, which is close to Barajas, flew alongside it in order to inspect the damage.

The plane made a smooth landing shortly before 19:10 local time (1810 GMT) while emergency vehicles lined up next to the runway.

The incident was broadcast live on several of the country's TV networks.

Earlier in the day, Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport was closed to all air traffic for over an hour after drones were reported flying in the vicinity and the Air Canada flight was one of the first to take off after the airport was reopened.