Boeing 737 wheel well fire warning report
 

See: Incident: Ryanair B738 near Munich on Apr 4th 2018, wheel well fire indication

It would be wiser to assume it was a real fire and to get on to the ground asap. Holding for 15 minutes to read checklists with the fire warning still on, seems the height of poor airmanship. Some will remember the Swissair MD11 fatal accident where the crew delayed too long reading checklists and dumping fuel following smoke in the cockpit and crashed.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

Lesson being you don't stuff around when there is indication of fire and smoke in the air. The priority is to land before you risk incapacitation.

Spoke with absolute ignorance there Centaurus.

Additionally, the incidents you are quoting aren't even closely related and cannot be compared.

Agree with red_dirt.

Way off the mark, Centaurus.

The guys in guys in the Swiss Air accident were basically screwed from the moment they signed on for work - not even a remotely comparable scenario.

I’m with Centaurus here, I’d treat it as a real fire, until such time as proven to be a false alarm. QRH says “gear down,get down & land at the nearest suitable.” Best time & place to determine if its a real fire is on the ground,away from the aircraft & RFF in attendance.

I'm a crappy jabiru pilot, so what would I know? But the one and only time I smelled smoke in the cockpit I instantly declared an emergency, politely asked the person on short final to bugger off out of the way, and landed instantly. I'd do the same again.

I agree treat the detector activation real until proven false however it wouldn't be too difficult to determine if it was a genuine activation with an active fire

red_dirt please continue. How you would determine if it was a genuine activation.

Any fire warning needs to be treated as real.

According to the FAA, in the event of an in-flight fire,
“...delaying the aircraft’s descent by only two minutes is likely to make the
difference between a successful landing and evacuation, and a complete
loss of the aircraft and its occupants.

Never mind the FAA, there’s a thing called a manufacturer’s QRH, Centaurus.

These aircraft send real time data logging. Who is to say that the following didn’t occur:
- crew get momentary wheel well fire warning and follow QRH
- on descent to nearest, Company engineering call up to say the data logging indicates it was a false warning
- crew decide to hold and prepare for approach because they’re not ready

What if this crew rushed the descent/approach and crashed the aircraft after what was considered to be a false warning? Bet you’d still hang them out to dry.

I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong. I’m saying you can’t possibly assess what they did as right or wrong with the limited information in that article.

That's true. Point well taken. I forgot about the data processing on todays modern types.

Agree with Slppery Pete,

Back Seat Driver, there would be additional indicators of active fire or a genuine activation, other sensors going off, systems showing signs of degradation due to fire, try reset the detector, etc the list goes on, the FL the aircraft was at also would be just one clue.

Agree with Centaurus,
red_dirt, presuming we are talking about the B738, can you tell me how to reset the wheel well fire detector?
Can you tell me what other sensors there are in the wheel well for fire detection?
Can you tell me if the wheel well fire warning ceases, does that mean the fire condition has ceased as well?