Southwest 737 catches on fire landing in Texas

The answer probably wont be found in just the video, as stated, the landing looks normal.

I made a normal landing once, then the brakes didnt work. 😀

With HOU and MDW as to of their major hubs SWA has some short runways to land on. The longest runway at MDW is 1000′ shorter than LBA.

Maybe so, but that landing still looks perfectly normal!

Paul

A little heavy? Try having LBA as your local. That touchdown was nothing! 😀

Paul

With HOU and MDW as to of their major hubs SWA has some short runways to land on. The longest runway at MDW is 1000′ shorter than LBA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Hobby_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Midway_International_Airport

I would venture a guess that either a tire blew or the brakes locked on landing. The landing didn’t appear to be excessively hard, perhaps just a bad tire.

It may well be a wheel bearing!!

I thought that but it appears to start very soon after landing. Perhaps someone with technical knowledge can explain how it might happen? C King, where are you?!

Paul

Mmmmm I would say that it looks like the tyres burst on landing and the fire was the whell hubs disintergrating. Skydrol, the hydraulic fluid should not burn (or so they say)
The lenght of time it took before the evcuation started was proberbly due to the crew waiting for advice from the fire service and the tower. Evacuation of the passengers is only done when there is a risk INSIDE the aircraft. As has been said aircraft are certified to withstand a full blown wheel fire without hull compromise for several minutes. If the other wheels were hot the passengers would have been at risk from them rupturing. Also having a load of passengers wondering around a live taxiway is not a good idea!
There is no indication in the flight deck that the wheels would have been on fire but, they may have been told by the cabin crew that there were flames.

Rgds Cking

And as for the guy picking up his papers, you have to think what would happen if those papers blew into another engine some where along the airfield??

I can’t imagine a few bits of paper would really do anything to any modern engine. The guy following them, however… 😀

Paul

I am think hydraulic leak on hots brakes….lots of smoke, then fire…

Apart from the fire part, i have seen hydrolic flid drop on hot breaks and cause a hell of a lot of smoke. Maybe the hydrilics broke on a heavy landing to cause the leak if there was a leakage.

I would also film it if im honnest!

And as for the guy picking up his papers, you have to think what would happen if those papers blew into another engine some where along the airfield??

How many angles of footage is there? Its just the one I watched the camera zoomed out after the main gear touched down making it difficult to make any judgement as to what happened. Mind you, i’m not looking to throw guesses at the situation, as theres too many possible outcomes and only the NTSB will be the ones who give the definitive answer.

you’re (I can only assume and I apologise if that assumption is wrong) criticising.

Not criticising, merely observing. Apology accepted 😉

1L.

Looks to me like the touch down was a little heavy.
Perhaps the tire burst shortly after touchdown. You can definately see what looks like tire smoke eminating before a flame is visible.

The touchdown didn’t look paticularly abnormal to me, and in any case it touched down with the left side first, so any impact from a hard landing would surely have been absorbed on that tyre?

Good footage. Some people never cease to amaze me with their lack of common sense – the guy picking up his bits of paper being a prime example.

I also thought that the evac took a fair while but I’m sure the fire service were in constant comms with the flight deck. Good job.

I was flying in the Houston area a bit yesterday and it was fairly gusty. That said, the landing didn’t look all that bad to me… Wonder what they’ll find caused the tires to burst. Still, that doesn’t look like a major incident.

Ryan

The one I like is the guy in Blue (I think) who comes out of the overwing quite early on, gets to the edge of the runway then starts filming on his mobile. It amazes me that people would even think to do that.

You probably won’t think to do that unless you’re a photographer or videographer. If I’d evacuated an aircraft and it was obvious no-one was hurt then the very first thing I’d do would be get my phone out of my pocket and start shooting. Absolutely no doubt about it. Some of the most dramatic photography and video footage in history has been captured by people doing the very thing you’re (I can only assume and I apologise if that assumption is wrong) criticising.

Paul

establishing if there was a need to evacuate.

I assumed this was the major point, taking advice from ATC and the emergency services rather than unneccesarily evacuating so quickly?

The one I like is the guy in Blue (I think) who comes out of the overwing quite early on, gets to the edge of the runway then starts filming on his mobile. It amazes me that people would even think to do that.

1L.

Yes, I noticed that, I thought looked very determined lol! Having said that, the Iberia video I mentioned on youtube was inside the aircraft, so amazing that someone would do it there!

it appears to take quite a while from landing to the evacuation starting

I would say it’s about the length of time I would expect. Under these circumstances the cabin crew would not start an evacuation until told to by the flight crew. The flight crew would be busy with shutting down the engines, checklists, liasing with ATC, emergency services and ground services and establishing if there was a need to evacuate.

I particulalry like the guy who’s papers drop out of the bag he’s brought with him, so he casually sits on the bottom of the slide to gather it all up!

The one I like is the guy in Blue (I think) who comes out of the overwing quite early on, gets to the edge of the runway then starts filming on his mobile. It amazes me that people would even think to do that.

1L.

Interesting stuff, not often you see the ‘whole’ story like that from landing to evacuation.

Looks to me like the touch down was a little heavy.
Perhaps the tire burst shortly after touchdown. You can definately see what looks like tire smoke eminating before a flame is visible.

A little heavy? Try having LBA as your local. That touchdown was nothing! 😀

Paul

Looks to me like the touch down was a little heavy.
Perhaps the tire burst shortly after touchdown. You can definately see what looks like tire smoke eminating before a flame is visible.

Maybe very hot breaks?

I thought that but it appears to start very soon after landing. Perhaps someone with technical knowledge can explain how it might happen? C King, where are you?!

Paul

I wonder what caused it?

Paul

Maybe very hot breaks?