Burst tyre and hydraulic problem blamed for emergency landing of Morgan Freeman’s SJ30

A SyberJet SJ30-2 owned by actor and pilot Morgan Freeman was forced to make an emergency landing at Tunica Municipal airport in Mississippi on 5 December while en route to Sugar Land regional airport in Houston.

According to a US Federal Aviation Administration accident and incident notification the light business jet – registration N30GZ – diverted to Tunica at 17:15 local time and ran off the runway “following a reported possible blown tire and hydraulic problem”.

Neither Freeman nor his pilot was hurt in the incident, and the twinjet suffered minimal damage.

SyberJet Aircraft

In a statement to Flightglobal, SyberJet says “it is supporting the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board investigations" and is "very happy" that no-one aboard the jet suffered any injuries.

Freeman has been an ambassador for the SJ30 programme since taking delivery of his aircraft – serial number 10 – in 2009.

The Hollywood actor is also the launch customer for the upgraded SJ30i – which is scheduled to enter service next year featuring the HoneywellPrimus Epic 2.0-based SyberVision cockpit – and the longer-range SJ30x, which will follow a year later.