Malaysian Airlines flight MH725 from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta experienced a hard landing – when an aircraft hits the ground with a greater vertical speed and force than in a normal landing – due to heavy rain around Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport yesterday.
According to Indonesian officials, the plane had to circle above Jakarta for over three hours yesterday afternoon as it awaited clearance for landing from the Air Traffic Controller. The Transportation Ministry cited bad weather as the reason for MH725’s delayed landing clearance.
A flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta ordinarily takes approximately two hours.
The plane was eventually cleared for landing at 8:04pm while it was still raining. One of the plane’s rear tires burst due to the hard landing, but the plane taxied safely and no passenger or crew were injured.
Soekarno-Hatta’s north runway, on which MH725 landed, was closed for around two hours following the hard landing. The incident also caused a ripple effect of delays at the airport, including eight Garuda Indonesia flights that were scheduled for take off yesterday but had to be pushed back to today.
Officials said MH725’s burst tire was eventually replaced by Malaysia Airlines technicians in Jakarta, but its return flight to KL scheduled for 7:50pm yesterday was cancelled.
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