Incident: Delta B763 blew tyre on takeoff

[glhcarl]

Tha Saudia L-1011 incident had nothing to do with a tire failure on takeoff. The outer flange of the wheel failed after the gear was up and stowed. The pressure deck above the wheel well was holed and two passengers were lost when the cabin experienced rapid decompression.

[sabenaboy]

Originally Posted by Stilton

I would have dumped fuel and returned

Well, assuming that the crew hadn't noticed anything and that they only heard long after TO that one of their tyres might have burst I think that almost all crews would have continued. Imagine getting a call from dispatch after XXX time (and there's no indication on your instruments whatsoever that there's anything wrong) : "Hey, captain, one of the tyres might have burst on TO, but we're not sure" Well, unless dispatch asks me to return for operational reasons, I would think it's not unwise to continue to the destination.

Decisions can only be as good as the information they are based upon.

[IGh]

Wheel Failure history -- mostly RAMP mishaps

Just adding to "glhcarl" mention [two slots above] of the L1011 inflight mishap:

Saudia 162 / 22Dec80, L-1011, HZ-AHJ, over int'l waters near Qatar, at 2312z. Explosive decompression while climbing through FL290. Two passengers ejected from aircraft through hole in cabin floor. P.C. = inflight "fatigue failure of main landing gear inboard wheel flange resulting in rupture of aircraft's pressure hull and decompression."

Another mode of wheel failure [mostly on-ground] was the failure of the wheel's Tie Bolts, with the resulting deflation of the Tire, then the failure of the adjacent Wheel & Tire on that axle [eg, 30Jun95 at KBWI http://www.asias.faa.gov/portal/pls/...329C&NARR_VAR= ] .

Re' Wheel Well safety -- the Wheel/Tire's engineered safety features don't protect against all failure modes, eg:
FTW95IA348

The Tire Pressure Indicator helps, as does the Fuse Plug, & the Brake Overheat annunciator (not sufficient to detect a Wheel Well FIRE on Nation Air DC8).

One other exemplar, for Wheel Well SAFETY:

USAF / 27Sep74 Lockheed C-5A 68-0227 hull loss: Wheel Well fire, uncontained, at night, crashed-landed at grass airport (rwy lights in sight) at Clinton OK. [???? Later mod'd LG Wheel Wells for fire suppression. ??? any good write-up on this case & post-accident modifications???.]

[stilton]

If you assume the crew did not notice anything and in fact they didn't that, of course changes everything.



Over ten years on the 75 / 67 experience leads me to doubt they noticed nothing.