Mumbai, March 13: In less than three months, the same Air-India jet that got stranded in Los Angeles due to a snag was forced to make an emergency landing in Mumbai today.

Last December, the plane had blown a tyre, dumped fuel over the Pacific Ocean and circled back to Los Angeles International Airport to land in a spray of sparks. It landed, shedding 200 pounds of rubber and metal on the runway.

Today, the plane was on its way to Los Angeles from New Delhi when it made the emergency landing.

“The aircraft, AI-317, landed safely at Mumbai airport at 1325 hours after being recalled as pieces of rubber from the tyre came out at the time of take-off from Delhi,” said Jitendra Bhargava, Air-India’s director for public relations.

An airline release said: “Air-India flight 137 that took off this afternoon for Frankfurt from Delhi was called to Mumbai as rubber pieces were found falling off from its tyres. It landed safely at Mumbai. The airplane is being checked by Air India engineers and soon will be ready for departure.”

The Boeing jet is a Singapore Airlines reject. It was leased by Air-India about a year back. “These old 747s?should be grounded,” said a senior official of the airline’s flight operations department.

The flight had on board 256 passengers and 15 crew members.

In December, when the jet was forced to land in Los Angeles, its 200 passengers were stranded for 45 hours at the airport.