Polonia Airport closed for seven hours over Batavia jet's burst tire

The Polonia Airport authority in Medan, North Sumatra, closed the airport for nearly seven hours Sunday after a tire burst on a Batavia Air plane upon landing. None of the 147 on board the company's A320 Airbus was injured, but flights were either diverted or returned to their origins due to the closure, Antara news agency reported.

Pilot Capt. Heri W said he was scheduled to land his jet at 9:15 a.m.local time, but due to instrument indications of a technical problem hedecided to fly in a holding pattern to investigate. Finding nothing after about 40 minutes, he decided to land. As theplane touched down, however, the left tire burst, leaving the plane tocoast and come to a stop in the middle of several runways.

The airport was immediately closed for flights, reopening only at 4:27 p.m. after the jet was pulled from the runway.