Tyre Failure 737
 

Tyre failure on take off

Boeing 737

The FCTM states that you may continue to your destination, however, I have read that you should keep the gear down and land ASAP. My question is would you leave the gear down and land or raise the gear and continue to your destination, considering that there are no abnormal indications?

If you've raised the gear, there is no reason you cannot continue to destination [it may be a more suitable airfield anyway]. On an NG, the gear will not stay raised [on the damaged side] so you may not have enough fuel to make it to destination [increased drag].

Excuse this if it is a daft question, how can you be sure from the flightdeck that nothing else is damaged but the tyre, and even if it is just the tyre, that it is not a fire hazard that you have just stowed away?

737ng blew a tyre recently in Sydney on T/off. Selected gear up and continued. NOT a good decision. Tyre shreds did not break fusible tube for up pressure, gear did go up and thrashing did lots of damage. If strayed down damage would've been limited to flaps?
Too many bits n pieces in wheel wells to risk it if aware of blow out!!

I do not understand how lots of thrashing can cause damage. When you move the gear to up this automatically applies the brakes. Am I missing something?

You Also Need To Be Sure That The Retracted Gear Is Going To Succesfully Extend With A Stowed damaged Tyre/ Wheel/leg In A Cramped Bay.
A DEFLATED NLG TYRE MAY NOT ABUTT THE BRAKES THEN YOU HAVE A SPINNING DAMAGED TYRE IN THE BAY, OUCH

I was refering to the main gear.

So bob, has the right answer been touched upon, or ...?

The brakes are applied by UP pressure, however, if the outer carcass has detached from the tyre core (as this one did), it's just like I said, a nasty thrashing machine.

If you know that you have blown a tyre, best option is to leave gear down. But maybe you don't realise it in time to delay the gear retraction, as that is something that is instinctive to do on every takeoff. Often, the first indication will be when ATC call you to tell you that you left a trail of shredded rubber on the runway and what is the address to bill your company for the clean-up. If you are not losing hydraulics and there's no other indication of damage, you now want the weight as low as possible for a full flap landing, so the decision to return or continue is one of airmanship, fuel available etc. On the other hand if you are getting ugly warnings on the flight deck, to hell with the landing weight. Better a buggered landing gear on the ground than a fire in the air.

That is a very good point. How many take offs have been aborted in the past because of a tyre failure, although crew thought it was the engine. Sometimes it just takes time to do a proper diagnose.