It was the second such incident in less than three weeks. Another Air Malta aircraft landed safely at Luqa on 13 August after a tyre had burst on take-off as the plane left for Moscow.

The same problem occurred yesterday when a tyre burst soon after the plane, bound for Malta, took off from Glasgow airport at 8.30pm Malta time.

The plane burned off fuel as it circled the airport for three hours before making the emergency landing at about 11.30pm. No one was reported to have been injured. The passengers were all evacuated safely.