An American Airlines 767 blew all 4 right main gear tires on landing at Rio yesterday morning.
The aircraft didn’t stop — it taxied to the gate with smoke coming from those tires.
The aircraft’s next flight, American 974 to New York JFK, was cancelled.
There’s quick video of the plane taxiing.
(HT: World Airline News)
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Sure that’s real good for the taxiways and the plane’s gear…
Surely there must be some sort of safety protocol this captain violated? Wouldn’t there be an increased fire risk by doing this instead of stopping after landing?
Based on the images, it seems to me that the description of the aircraft “blowing all 4 tires” is probably incorrect. The wheels/tires are under immense pressure, so failures on landing are often violent and destructive, but the images show the wheels are still intact and the rubber is still there. It seems more likely that something led to less-than-optimal performance in the landing gear and the wheels and/or brakes overheated. Then the tires did what they are supposed to, which is vent/deflate to prevent the pressure from building and causing an explosion.
When we landed at SYD on a UA 744 a few years back with one flat tire, the FD came out to inspect before we moved to the gate. That seems prudent IMHO.