With respect, I would like to invite interested people to view the photograph in the Heritage link.
The shimmy is obvious. the trail of rubber has a cycle roughly the circumference of the tyres, and an excursion from center of close to one foot. That suggests the out of balance condition of the right side of the portside bogie contributed to the skid.
That means the ruptured tyre is contributory. Also note the dark scrub of the #2 tyre in roughly the same cycle as the bogie's oscillatory condition... That suggests the tyre was essentially still on the wheel, with the ruptured deficit causing severe drag.
A bogie with a blowout will not shimmy like that. Period. Can we surmise the bogie stated to shimmy at brakes release? Yes, I would say, yes.
Now, given the state of the bogie's wobble, I can suggest that as speed increased, it worsened. The vibration would have reached substantial effect in the cockpit (imo), and now we come to #2 engine cut.
Did FE have evidence to cut the engine? Of course. What was the nature of the evidence to hand to cause FE to take such a remarkable action? Temps? Tower? (ATC) "..derriere vous...."
I submit that FE associated the extreme portside bogie vibration with engine failure....
At 120 mph, the bogie would wobble seven times (right, left) EACH SECOND.
I estimate the weight of the bogie at approximately 2000 pounds.
I urge all objective people to see the photographic image, and decide if they can see the scalloped trail of rubber left by the 1 and 3 tyres.
At the runway light, the a/c was travelling closer to 250mph.
Last edited by Lyman; 16th Dec 2012 at 14:36.