On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:55:37 -0700, Tony de Sa wrote: <<<…. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not absolving AI for the cosmetic state of the aircraft. But to consider scrapping a plane merely because a tyre or two of them burst is ridiculous. "Tony de Sa" < tonydesa at gmail dot com>>>
COMMENT : I do not believe these tires burst on landing! I read in one of the dailies that neither the passengers nor the pilot were aware of any untoward incident happening until a ground personnel observed the tires when taxing off the runway. Neither the passengers nor the crew/pilots felt anything unusual on landing as well as taxing off the runway. The tower too had not observed any smoke emission from the landing gear which is usual when a burst tire occurs. In my contention (I may be wrong); the tires, i.e. the hind two tires of the nose wheel assembly do not bear any stress on touchdown in landing, nor after the nose landing during which de-acceleration starts. It only bears full stress when taxing. The Physics behind is that planes land on their wing wheel assembly and once the nose is lowered and the de-acceleration starts, the greatest friction is on the frontmost wheels. I therefore presume that these hind tires must have got deflated during takeoff from Kuwait and got mangled during de-acceleration and taxing off the runway at Goa. In other words, the Airbus landed only utilising the two inflated front wheels of the nose wheel assembly. Dr. Ferdinando dos Reis Falcão.
