A Vietnam Airlines aircraft from the central Da Nang City to Ha Noi landed safely at Noi Bai International Airport this morning, following an alert over reduced tyre pressure.

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"The flight VN162 carrying 162 passengers has landed safe and sound, without any damage," Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) at the airport.

According to Vietnam Airlines (VNA), the Airbus A321 flight took off from Da Nang Airport at 8.30am. Thirty minutes later, the aircrew and the airport's ground monitor system detected that the pressure indicator of tyre No 1 of the right main landing gear had gone offline.

Immediately, VNA applied an emergent operation under the direction of the transport minister, VNA general director and deputy general directors.

All measures were quickly adopted and carefully examined to ensure best support to the flight crew.

The initial examination showed that the tyre had a cut, which was probably influenced by a foreign object. According to experts, the flight crew and ground management staff had closely followed procedures, which helped the aircraft to land successfully.

"Technicians had checked the aircraft before it took off but found no abnormality. It is likely that the cut was caused by a foreign object," Head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam, Lai Xuan Thanh, said.

"The tyre pressure was reducing, so it was necessary to apply an emergent situation for landing. All response drills were activated before and we were well prepared. The flight landed without any damage to either passengers or the aircraft," minister Thang said.

To prevent disorder, passengers were only informed of the incident when the flight was unable to land on time and had to circle the airport before landing. Fortunately, the aircraft landed safely in Ha Noi at 10.24am.

The aircraft was put into operation in 2013 by VNA with the latest maintenance in October last year.

This is the first such incident to a commercial fight in Viet Nam. 

VNS