However; to the point. How did 4 tyres burst? Was this an extremely strong right foot, but then there are auto brakes. Was this a mechanical cause?
Use of autobrakes varies widely among different operators from what I've seen. Lately the feds have been touting a runway braking assessment where you look up on a chart what autobrake setting to use. Of course, if you don't use the autobrakes, the chart doesn't apply so some folks just use 'manual [sic] braking' and skip the chart.
Another technique I've seen is to use the ever popular minimal autobrake setting to coast gracefully down a long runway and then smoke the brakes when the desired exit is about to whiz by.
Never seen it on a Boeing but I've known of two Airbus antiskid box failures that locked the brakes and blew all four tires on both bogies. One was on takeoff, which was rejected when the hot brake ECAM popped up. The other was on landing, any pax with a loose seatbelt got upgraded to the front cabin. Seems like in both cases maintenance had to put new tires on to tow the aircraft to the hangar, then remove the new tires and change the wheels and brakes. And then reinstall the new tires.
There are fuse plugs in the wheels that will melt after high energy braking and deflate the tires but this usually takes several minutes in the cases I've heard about. See:
http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/42422...-question.html
I believe all B-763's have brake temp indications as a widebody certification requirement. Tire pressure and brake fans are options, looks like AA doesn't have the fans, not sure about the pressure indications.
From the pictures it looks like perhaps some of the landing gear assembly was scraping, that would be costly. You can get replacements at Paine Field as I recall.
I haven't had a tire blow outside the sim since the 727 days when a proactive coworker turned off the antiskid a little too fast on rollout. Still, it seems like it would be hard not to notice a four tire burst on one side.