RwandAir tyre burst causes shutdown at RGM Int Airport (Harare, Zimbabwe)

On the 18th of December, a RwandAir CRJ900 with 65 passengers and 8 crew memebers which was scheduled to depart Harare for Cape Town failed to take off after a tyre burst during the take-off run, resulting in the temporary closure of the runway.

For almost 3 hours, the aircraft was stuck on the runway as the burst tyre was being replaced. This resulted in a number of diversions such as KLM Cargo operating on the Johannesburg-Harare-Nairobi route opeted to proceed to Nairobi without stopping in Harare and Kenya Airways diverted an E190 to Lusaka. The only cancelled flight was that of Rwandair. Airlink and fastjet were the most affected airlines as multiple flights were delayed due to the runway incident.