Aeromexico DC-10 Crash-Lands in Tijuana; Most Aboard Unhurt

The tires in a locked landing gear of an Aeromexico DC-10 with more than 100 passengers aboard exploded during an emergency landing Friday night at Tijuana International Airport, but most of the more than 100 passengers aboard escaped injury.

The airport was ordered closed, probably through Monday morning, while officials investigate the mishap that left the huge aircraft sitting in the middle of the runway.

Some Hurt in Evacuation

The only injuries incurred in the incident were the result of rushed evacuations down the emergency chutes, Tijuana airport officials said. Nobody was reported hospitalized.

The plane came from Mexico City and was scheduled to leave Tijuana for Guadalajara at 5:45 p.m. as Flight 131. The plane did not take off until about 10 p.m. Friday, however, and tower controllers ordered it back to the airport when the crew reported that the left landing gear did not retract into the fuselage and that they could not retract it by hand.

The plane landed 23 minutes later, and the tires on the locked landing gear exploded on touchdown. A brief fire spread to the left engine but was quickly extinguished by airport firefighting crews, officials said.

Aeromexico officials in Mexico City, Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles declined to comment on the incident. In Los Angeles, a spokesman for the McDonnell Douglas Corp., maker of the aircraft, said he had no specific details about the accident.

Estimates of the number of passengers and crew members on board ranged from 102 to 170. An unknown number were assumed to be U.S. citizens because the Tijuana-to-Guadalajara flight is popular among Americans, one Mexico City airport official said.

Aeromexico flights from Mexico City to Tijuana were being diverted Saturday and today to San Diego’s Lindbergh Field as well as to the airport at Mexicali.

Telephones at the Tijuana airport were taken off their hooks by harried airport employees who found themselves too busy with stranded travelers to deal with the telephones inquiries as well, witnesses said.

Miguel Cervantes contributed to this story from Tijuana.