Technicians at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City have discovered two planes having nails in their tires over the past few days.

A punctured tire, despite no harm to the safety of flights, forced airlines to find a replacement tire to keep the planes in operation.

An Airbus 321 aircraft was found to have a puncture in one of its rear tires believed to be caused by a nail after landing at Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 11:32 am on Monday.

The plane transported passengers to the city from Khanh Hoa Province in south-central Vietnam.

Technicians quickly replaced the flat tire with a spare one so that the aircraft could make the next flight.

The management board of the airport checked the runways and taxiways, but it discovered no nails. 

At Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, technicians found one of the rear tires of an Airbus plane which departed from Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang Province and landed at the airport at 8:32 pm on June 30 had a nail in it.  

After being removed from the tire, the nail was found measuring one centimeter in length and 0.2 centimeters in diameter.

The airport’s flight operation center worked with relevant units to examine the runways, taxiways, and aprons, but it saw no foreign object debris.

Another case happened at the Hanoi-based airport at 11:10 pm on June 28. An Airbus A350 aircraft which was scheduled to fly to Melbourne in Australia was found to have a nail in one of its tires.

The nail was 1.5 centimeters in length and 0.3 centimeters in diameter.

Many aviation experts said that the term 'foreign object debris' in the aviation industry means any object, which may be an alive or dead animal that lies on an unsuitable location on runways, taxiways, and aprons; and can harm staff and aircraft.

Among many types of foreign object debris are pieces of metal, glass, nails, rocks, pieces of concrete, cat and bird carcasses, and snakes.

The aforementioned foreign object debris might cause cuts and tears for tires, badly dent the body of a plane, or damage jet engines.

On Monday, technicians at Da Nang International Airport notified the management board of the Hanoi-based airport that an engine fan blade of an Airbus A320 aircraft was nicked after it flew to the coastal city from Hanoi.

On the same day, an Airbus A321 plane that departed from Singapore and landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport was found to have a punctured tire.

The flight management unit at the airport checked the runways, taxiways, and aprons, but it saw no foreign object debris.

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