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What you don't want your flight path to look like
American Airlines flight 1586 on its way to Toronto blew a tire on its takeoff from LAX earlier today, requiring them to return to the airport. As you might already know, however, you can't land an aircraft with a full tank of gas -- it's just too hard on the brakes -- so the pilots had to kill some time.
As a result, instead of the pleasant transcontinental flight that flight 1586 passengers were expecting, the aircraft ended up circling around Catalina island for a little while, burning jet fuel and offering a nice tour of the off shore vacation island. In the end, the flight landed safely and the passengers were sent out about five hours late. I would have much preferred a circling tour of the Grand Canyon, but I guess that was too far away.
All standard procedure for a blown out tire though. From the flight map above courtesy of FlightAware.com though, it looks like a boring afternoon for some 130 passengers.
Check out the AA1586 flight on FlightAware for other interesting tidbits about the flight.
As a result, instead of the pleasant transcontinental flight that flight 1586 passengers were expecting, the aircraft ended up circling around Catalina island for a little while, burning jet fuel and offering a nice tour of the off shore vacation island. In the end, the flight landed safely and the passengers were sent out about five hours late. I would have much preferred a circling tour of the Grand Canyon, but I guess that was too far away.
All standard procedure for a blown out tire though. From the flight map above courtesy of FlightAware.com though, it looks like a boring afternoon for some 130 passengers.
Check out the AA1586 flight on FlightAware for other interesting tidbits about the flight.
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
ChasWick4 Sep 6th 2008 10:54PM
OK, let's repeat this one more time: SOME airliners can dump fuel, and some can't. Among the modern Boeings, the ones that CAN dump fuel are the 747, 777, and 767. Among the ones that CANNOT are the 757 and 737.
Ben Sep 7th 2008 10:10PM
Thanks to those knowledgeable responses. I didn't know that the gear couldn't be retracted with a blown tire. Quick question: Is there a tire pressure monitoring system on jetliners? Is there a backup system?
Thanks!