Correction: A previous headline on this story misstated the status of the place. It was at one point diverted to Massachusetts.
TETERBORO, N.J. — A private jet that blew two tires during takeoff at a small New Jersey airport was headed to an airport in New York on Tuesday afternoon to attempt an emergency landing.
The troubled Gulfstream IV was en route to London Luton Airport in Luton, England, when the pilot realized shortly after takeoff that the tires had blown. He began circling the airport for about 30 minutes before the jet was diverted.
The jet was heading to New York Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) north of New York City, said Eric Billowitz, manager of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in Massachusetts. The plane originally was to attempt an emergency landing at Westfield-Barnes airport.
Billowitz said he was told the plane was first headed to the Massachusetts airport because there is a Gulfstream service center there and because the airport has “one of the longest runways in the Northeast” at 9,000 feet (2,740 meters), but the plane was then diverted to Stewart.
Stewart’s signature feature is a nearly 12,000-foot (3,650-meter) runway, long enough to handle the fat-bodied C-5A Galaxy planes laden with supplies and better for such emergencies.
The plane had 16 people on board when it left Teterboro Airport around 10:50 a.m. Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said, but didn’t specify if the number of people aboard included the pilot.