Police said they believe two tires may have been tampered with on a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757, an incident perhaps related to the nearly week-old mechanics strike against the nation's fourth-largest carrier. On Wednesday, Northwest employees discovered finding two landing gear tires deflated on a 757-200 aircraft during a preflight inspection at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the airline said in a statement. Northwest said no other damage was reported. The Maryland Transportation Authority Police is investigating the tire deflation as a crime, a spokeswoman said. "Based on information and evidence collected at the scene, the police believe that the plane was illegally tampered with," Cpl. Pam Thorne said. The plane arrived at BWI Airport at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday and later was rolled to a holding area. At 11 a.m. Wednesday, two tires seemed to have low air pressure during a routine visual inspection, Thorne said. With Northwest mechanics on strike, the airline brought in a mechanic from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia to repair the tires, and the plane returned to service. A BWI Airport spokesman said he had no knowledge of the problem. In a separate development, Northwest Flight 1271 from Minneapolis, Minnesota, made an emergency landing Wednesday about 140 miles short of its intended destination in Bozeman, Montana, touching down at Billings Logan International Airport, an airport fire department representative said. The Airbus 320 reported hydraulic system problems but landed without incident, said supervisor Shane Ketterling. He said there was no evidence linking the malfunction to the strike. Northwest mechanics walked off the job Saturday rather than agree to take pay cuts and layoffs. Northwest turned over its maintenance work to replacement workers.
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