Damaged Air Canada plane lands safely in Madrid after emergency

An Air Canada passenger flight with 128 passengers on board landed safely at Madrid’s Barajas airport after the aircraft suffered damage following takeoff.

The aircraft made its emergency landing “without incident” shortly after 7pm in Madrid and engineers are now checking it over, airport operator AENA said in a tweet.

Flight AC837 bound for Toronto had earlier aborted its voyage to Canada, a spokeswoman for AENA said by phone. The Boeing 767-300 had spent several hours flying over central Spain to use up fuel.

“The flight experienced an engine issue shortly after takeoff,” Air Canada said in a statement prior to the landing. “A tire also reportedly ruptured on take-off, one of 10 on this model of aircraft.”