A U.S. Airways plane with 154 passengers and crew on board blew a tire as it was speeding down the runway at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, prompting the pilot to abort the takeoff, officials said.
Although there were no serious injuries, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said two passengers were hospitalized, one with a minor injury and one with a minor illness, Agence France-Presse reported.
The airline said the pilot of Flight 1702 aborted takeoff for Fort Lauderdale due to the tire problem.
Initial indications are that the plane, an Airbus A320, was just beginning to lift off when the tire blew, and soon afterward the nose gear collapsed, according to airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.
The pilot then elected to abort takeoff, said U.S. Airways spokesman William McGlashen.
"Passengers were safely evacuated & we are reaccommodating passengers on a new aircraft, scheduled to depart later this evening," U.S. Airways said on its Twitter account.
The flight had initially been scheduled to take off from Philadelphia at 5:50 pm (2150 GMT) and arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 8:42 pm (0042 GMT), according to the airline's website.
Seeing the plane "bounce twice on takeoff," a witness sitting in an airport terminal reported the incident on the online travel blog flyertalk.com.
"Front gear collapsed, sparks on the runway, it then skid out of my line of sight. Light white smoke visible for about 7-10 min afterwards," added the user, writing under the handle phlwookie.
Though the aircraft remained upright, images posted on Twitter showed the plane's nose to the ground. The emergency slides were deployed, AFP reported.
"So my plane just crashed," passenger Hannah Udren wrote on the social media platform. "I almost just died."
A photo by Will Jager posted by Twitter user Charles Davis showed passengers on the ground taking pictures of the pitched plane and selfies with the aircraft in the background.
Philadelphia International Airport authorities, also using Twitter, said, "Nose gear of plane collapsed on runway. The incident is under investigation. All passengers safely evacuated. No reported injuries.
"A big KUDOS to our emergency response team who responded to the aircraft emergency tonight for getting all our passengers evacuated safely!" it added.
The airport said the incident caused delays of up to two hours for passengers of other flights, AFP reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident, McGlashen said.
