I was traveling to the southern IT city of Hyderabad in India on Kingfishers A320 today.
Everything was going great…we taxied onto the runway on time and started our roll down the runway at 9:20 am. About 25 seconds into the roll a sudden and loud thud weird the aircraft offcourse, emergency brakes were hit and the engines suddenly roared into full reverse thrust, narrowly missing weiring off the runway, by a matter of inches literally.
A bird hit on the right engine flamed the engine out in an instant making the aircraft lunge towards the left in the direction of the international terminal.
Thankfully the pilot had the aircraft in control and we came to a grinding halt with not much runway to spare. The aircraft taxied back to the tarmac while the pilot explained the situation. The engineers checked the aircraft and made a decision instantly that the bird was not fit to fly (including the one in the engine i guess).
After we got off the aircraft 20 minutes later for the replacement aircraft the damage on the engine was visible. I was about to take a picture but a Kingfisher crew member swiftly came in my way.
I also noticed that the tyres of the rear right gear were absolutely deflated. I am not too sure if the sudden breaking caused this or the engineers did it themselves.
I talked to the pilot briefly, and he put it in good words, “lucky lucky day”…eventful start to the day it was. Just thought i would share it. 🙂
By: KabirT - 9th July 2008 at 17:43
Its surprising then how my flight made it back to the parking bay if it had deflated rear right gear.
By: Cking - 9th July 2008 at 12:48
It just depends on how hot the individual tyre gets. In my example the crew had used a lot of right brakes. When we arrived at the aircraft the fire service had scanned all the wheels with an inferred camera (standard procedure in a over weight landing or rejected take off) They told us that the right set of wheels were very hot, with that there were two pops and the outer two wheels deflated. We fully expected the other two to go so we retired to a safe distance and waited!
That incidentally is why you were not allowed off the aircraft sooner. There is always the possibility that there may be debris flying about when the tyres do let go. Passengers and crew are safer on board during a wheel over heat situation. You may be only eight feet or so from the wheels but some of that is metal and will protect you
Rgds Cking
My full “Hot wheels”story
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=78738
By: KabirT - 9th July 2008 at 11:49
So it is not necessery that all tyres behave in the same way on a rejected take off?
By: Cking - 9th July 2008 at 10:17
I also noticed that the tyres of the rear right gear were absolutely deflated. I am not too sure if the sudden breaking caused this or the engineers did it themselves.
The brakes would have been very hot due to the rejected take off. This would have caused the wheel assemblys fuseable plugs to melt and let the tyre pressure out in a controled manner, rather than the tyre exploding. Dunlop made a training film back in the fifties were they heated up a wheel untill it exploded. Nasty, thats all I can say!
The engineers would not have let the pressure out of the tyres because that makes the aircraft immovable on the runway/taxi way and that is a pain in the a**e far all concerned!!
Hear is a picture of some deflated wheels we had after a “High energy” stop I attended. This blocked our runway for two hours.
We were as popular as… You can Imagine!!!
Thanks for sharing your experience with us
Rgds Cking
By: steve rowell - 9th July 2008 at 08:12
It’s an occurrence that happens all over the worlds airports quite regularly
By: KabirT - 4th July 2008 at 04:21
Dear friend;
I am flying tomorrow and as usual scared to death. However I really feel glad to hear that everything had ended in a possitive way. My support to you.I hope you don´t feel too scared to get onboard again.
hey keltic, long time no see. 🙂
Oh i am back on an aircraft (helicopter to be precise) today. 😀
By: steve rowell - 4th July 2008 at 00:34
Yikes !
Better a bird strike on the ground than just after take
off. 😮
You mean the the stewardesses are going on strike as well!!
By: keltic - 3rd July 2008 at 22:16
Dear friend;
I am flying tomorrow and as usual scared to death. However I really feel glad to hear that everything had ended in a possitive way. My support to you.
I hope you don´t feel too scared to get onboard again.
By: Ren Frew - 3rd July 2008 at 20:56
Yikes !
Better a bird strike on the ground than just after take off. 😮
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July 3, 2008 at 11:18 am