- Captain of the A380-800 received a tyre pressure warning on take-off
- Aeroplane flew from Hong Kong to London Heathrow on a 13-hour journey
- One pilot said that the tyre probably detached from the wheel on landing
An astonishing picture has emerged of a square-shaped tyre on a British Airways A380 that touched down at London's Heathrow Airport.
Aviation experts have been left baffled by the misshapen deflated wheel, which was part of the landing gear on a flight that arrived from Hong Kong on Friday.
The Civil Aviation Authority described the incident as 'curious', a serving pilot admitted he wasn't sure how it could have occurred and the Royal Aeronautical Society has not yet found anyone within its ranks who can explain it fully.
Engineers were left puzzled when upon inspection of the damaged aft right outboard body tyre, it appeared to be shaped like a square (pictured)
The captain of the Airbus A380-800 received a loss of tyre pressure warning on take-off.
Following the indication, the crew made the decision to continue the flight and reportedly called ahead to London to request a tow tug as a precaution in case the aircraft could not taxi to the gate under its own power.
After the 13-hour flight the double-deck, wide-body Airbus landed safely on runway 09L and made its way to the gate without assistance.
According to the Aviation Herald, crew were left puzzled when an inspection revealed that the right outboard body tyre had deflated to a square shape, rather than just at the bottom, as is usual.
The captain of the Airbus A380-800 received a loss of tyre pressure warning on take-off during the flight from Hong Kong to London Heathrow (file image)
Patrick Smith, author of best-selling book Cockpit Confidential, told MailOnline Travel that the photograph didn't look fake, but he was not certain how the tyre had become square.
He said: 'The photo appears genuine, but I'm unsure how such a thing would happen, exactly.
'The tire deflated and the subsequent rotation caused it to fold in on itself in four symmetrical segments.'
A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said: 'It is a curious one. Not seen anything like it before.'
One serving airline captain said that the tyre probably detached from the wheel on landing when the brakes were applied, but stressed that the aircraft was never in danger.
He added: 'The tyres are pressurised to around seven times that of a car tyre. Once depressurised the tyre will have "flatted" while the a/c was braking and once it did so it would then rotate through 90 degrees to another part of the tyre and then do it again - hence the four flats you see.
'Is it dangerous? No. To lose one is no big deal.'
A spokesman for the Royal Aeronautical Society showed the image to several members, each of whom said they'd never seen a deflation quite like it, but also confirmed that it wasn't dangerous.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: 'Our flight landed normally last Friday with one of its 18 tyres deflated.
'The A380, in common with other large commercial aircraft, is designed to be perfectly safe when landing with a deflated tyre.
'Our engineers quickly changed the tyre and the aircraft went back into service.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét