An Air Canada flight had to make an emergency landing early Wednesday morning in Toronto because of a blown tire on the aircraft.
A spokesperson for the airline said the plane's tire blew out during takeoff from Calgary at around 9:15 p.m. ET. Flight 850 with 225 passengers and 13 crew members was headed to London but was forced to land at Toronto's Pearson International Airport just after 1:30 a.m.
Peter Fitzpatrick, an Air Canada spokesperson, said authorities decided to divert the plane to Toronto for safety reasons, even though pilots are trained to fly and land a plane safely with a flat tire.
"When the plane leaves Calgary it's loaded with enough fuel to fly to London so that's very heavy and you're not able to land a very heavy aircraft," Fitzpatrick told The Canadian Press.
"So they left Calgary and they flew to Toronto so the plane would be lighter for landing," he said.
The plan is to put passengers on another Air Canada plane to England Wednesday morning.
With files from The Canadian Press
