El Al plane lands safely back in Tel Aviv after tire explodes during take-off

An El Al flight landed safely back in Tel Aviv late Thursday night after one of its tires exploded during take-off for Kiev from Ben-Gurion Airport.

The plane was ordered to make an emergency landing after airport crew discovered tire remains on the runway.

All 182 passengers aboard the Boeing 737 were safely back in Israel, with some suffering from shock. Medical personnel were on the scene to treat them.

The El Al flight — run by its low-cost carrier UP — departed Tel Aviv for Kiev on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m, some three hours behind schedule.

Shortly after takeoff, the airport crew notified the flight personnel that tire remains were found on the runway from which the plane had taken off, indicating the tire had exploded.

The plane circled over Israel for some time to unload fuel before making its landing.

The airport had declared a state of emergency with rescue and firefighting services standing by for the landing.

One passenger said people on board the flight realized something was wrong when, about an hour after take-off, someone noticed that the plane was still flying above Israel.

“One of the passengers turned on his phone and saw all the news sites reporting that the plane was suffering a malfunction, ” Islam Lubani told Channel 2 Thursday after landing back in Israel.

Lubani said that the flight crew at first kept passengers in the dark about the problem before telling them what had happened.

Lubani said the landing was calm and that passengers applauded.

A spokesman for Magen David Adom said the coordination between rescue services and airport officials went smoothly as everyone prepared for every possible scenario.

The passengers were taking off for Kiev again on another plane overnight Thursday-Friday.