A Boeing Large Cargo Freighter (Dreamlifter) carrying part of a Boeing 787 fuselage lost a wheel shortly after taking off from Taranto-Grottaglie Airport in Italy on Tuesday. The aircraft was on its way to Charleston, South Carolina, where Boeing has a Dreamliner assembly plant. The center section of the fuselage is built by Alenia in Italy and is moved to Charleston using the outsized modified Boeing 747. The aircraft continued to Charleston and landed safely on its remaining 17 wheels.
I don’t know the area and what options were available, but for me, roads are a last resort.
Ditching in the water might well have saved a life in this case? Hard to know for sure.
Indeed. Yet we always see media reports of people making landings on roads. I am yet to see a comment in a report that the prevalence of cars and wires mean that roads are the last resort.
Wonder why they landed opposite oncoming traffic. If that is the case. Just listened to the latest AOPA podcast with McSpadden about a guy who put it down on the 101 in SoCal.
Road are one thing, bridges with side rails are another. Cars can get out of your way very easily on a bridge. Ditching in a fixed gear plane is bad too, I think fight or flight instant response would make that call at that time.
The average road lane is 12ft wide and a Cessna 172 has a 36ft wingspan. So if you landed that Cessna exactly in the middle of a roadway that’s three lanes wide – which that bridge is not – the plane would still occupy all three lanes.
Having lived and flown in that area for a big part of my life, I would recommend ditching in the water THAT’S ALL AROUND you and is not freezing anytime of the year. Landing on a bridge like that is suicidal.
If the “Monday morning QBs” influence a single pilot into making a better decision. It is called ‘hangar flying’ and ‘post-crash analysis’. Otherwise known as “I would much rather learn from the mistakes of others.”
I have done a bit of flying in that area and there are 2 very nice beaches, one on either side of the bridge. Even going into the water a few yards off shore would have been a much better choice in my mind.
One “limiting factor” is that Haulover Beach, just north of the bridge, has a nude (clothing optional) beach which may have been a distraction.
I know that from 1000’ you can’t tell though.
Lead has been used in gasoline for how many years ? and the EPA is just now declaring it “dangerous” - effective after a certain cutoff date? SMH! I suppose the UN will now follow suit …
Looks like before retracting the gear, the brakes are applied and the brake in that wheel may have seized immediately releasing the black cloud and rupturing off either the axle or whatever part of the brake assembly while letting go of the wheel. It would be interesting to get to know what the real reason was.
This is one of those videos where you can’t draw any conclusions except one; like always, when something interesting happens the camera guy shows us the weeds at his feet. Normally, a simple blown tire doesn’t cause a wholesale detachment from it’s rim. Nor does a blown tire cause the entire wheel (hub, rim, & tire) to fall off. From the way the wheel truck angles upwards after liftoff (normal) and during landing flare, the rear wheels probably see more wear. We’ll have to see the FAA report a year from now to have a clue.
He had to quickly point the camera at the weeds as he realized he had just witnessed a secret test of a modern variant of an “Upkeep” - last used in anger 79 years ago. Didn’t want to give anything away about its ultimate performance…
I’m guessing a dry or frozen wheel bearing that was dragging throughout the takeoff roll. It would get very hot and start to cook the tire. Tapping the brakes on retraction might have just pushed it over the edge and the tire blew, encouraging the (red hot?) axle to separate in all the excitement. I imagine a heavy lifter like that puts a lot of load on the wheels and brakes. More than a stock 747?
