Originally Posted by
cactusbusdrvr
Some info from ORD suggests that a tire or two blew during the abort and pieces penetrated the right inner fuel tank. That would cause the huge fire event on the right side. The question will be if it was a tire failure that was caused by an uncoontained engine failure or if it was an abort for what they thought was an engine issue but was in fact a blown tire.
On some of the posted videos there are dark fabric looking things hanging off the right horizontal stab, perhaps remnants of a burst tire or two.
I was a pax on an MD-11 that had burst tires FOD the engine on a high speed reject years ago. Similar to the question above, I wondered if the tire burst came first or if the autobrakes caused the tire burst and the FOD occurred when the engine went into reverse.
I'm guessing a tire explosion can throw debris far enough in front to FOD the engine even with forward thrust at 100 knots. And, punch holes in the fuel tanks on the wing.