A United 747-400 departing Sydney on October 20 suffered tyre failure on takeoff, remarkably captured here by Australian Aviation reader Quoc Mach Nguyen.
The aircraft, operating UA840 with 227 passengers and 14 crew aboard, returned to Sydney one and a half hours later after dumping fuel. The emergency landing and closure of the runway as the aircraft was recovered and the runway cleaned and inspected caused widespread delays. The United flight was subsequently cancelled.
- photo – Quoc Mach Nguyen
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Julian French
says:Amazing shots Quoc!!
Ashley Wincer
says:Great photo.. Thanks for posting it online..
Tim
says:Great shots.
Could someone explain why the flight had to be cancelled? What is the difference between landing in Syd vs LA? Or could they not retract the landing gear?
Rumsey
says:plane was going to Melbourne not LAX. Aircraft needs to be inspected for damage ASAP. Remember what burst tyres did to Concorde.
Nicholas Fone
says:Fantastic pic, Quoc. Sharing this link with the pilots in my family 🙂
Nicholas Fone
says:Rumsey, UA 840 is SYD to LAX.
Nicholas Fone
says:Tim, I asked my old man about this as I was wondering the same thing. SOP would be to leave the landing gear down, due to potential damage from tyre debris. If they retracted it, then it might not have been possible to get it down again, which would have likely presented a far more difficult situation on landing.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing about the actual cause of the blown tyres!
Tim
says:Thanks for the replies guys
Ben
says:Good thing they left it down too, I’ve seen pictures of the gear area and it’s not pretty. At best they’d have had an unknown drag penalty, which on a 14hr trans-Pacific isn’t something you’d want.
Philip Argy
says:Doesn’t a tyre failure slow early in the takeoff roll suggest that it ran over debris on the runway? From the picture it seems to be taking off on 34L and is barely 30% into its takeoff run.
aviatorman
says:Re Ben. . ‘good thing they left it down’… it may not have retracted if they wanted it to. But very prudent anyway without knowing the extent of damage. Maybe the tyre was worn beyond limits… (cost cutting.?)
Maurice Dee
says:It is most unprofessional to jump to conclusions before all the evidence is presented. We will just have to be patient and await the details found during the investigation as to why the tyres failed and what damage resulted.
John Brennan
says:Are United heading or chapter 11 again ?
Alex
says:I was on that flight. The captain told us they could not get the gear to go up, which leads me to believe that they tried. I was in business first, second floor, first row behind the cockpit and the blowout occurred just before the nose lifted off. Somewhat scary, but the flight crew and captain and first officer did a great job of keeping everyone calm and of course landing the plane safely.