Photo Gallery of the Day: USN F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter blows tires, but everybody's OK

ARC Air Discussion Forums ^ | November 12, 2006 | CRASCA

[Blueflag]

Lemmee take that back. The rears are really compressed. I'll vote for hard landing that blew the rears.

[Yo-Yo]

True, the nose would dive, but these photos are late in the touchdown sequence, the mains have already blown, so there isn't much stopping power with rims against concrete.

[Yo-Yo]

Also, I don't know of an F/A-18 even has nosewheel braking.

[Mogollon]

Good thing the landing wasn't on the deck of pitching carrier deck.

[ARE SOLE]

My wife mentioned something about Air Force One blowings its tires. Any news on that?

Actually I read here on FR that AF1 blew it's tyres on a stop over in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon). The president continued on in a smaller backup aircraft.

Regards.

[airforceF4]

Oh man, his crew chief is gonna be pissed!!

[gridlock]

Total elapsed time: 1.5 seconds, or two weeks, depending on where you're sitting...

[al_c]

I like the way he steered into the skid. ;o)

[Chuck54]

bttt

[Mat_Helm]

Without seeing a video it would be speculation to determine cause of right main failure. From the photographers description it sounds like he was on the roll out when the first tire blew so it sounds like it was not the result of a heavy touch down. He may have had a planning link failure that possibly went undetected. If when he lowered the gear there would have been a warning and a flashing gear handle and he would have elected to go around and call for a short field arresment. Once the tire blew he would not use brakes on the good tire unless it was to maintain directional control. He would have used nosewheel steering to maintain directional control, as control surfaces would have little aerodynamic affect to keep him on the runway. With the second tire blown it was likely from braking trying to stay on the runway. He was at full flaps and was giving full forward (nose down) stab for areobraking and just before ground looping was inputing full right aileron when he was possibly attempting to use the left main brake before it blew. Engine nozzles show no asymmetric thrust and appear to be at idle. The antiskid would have been off or switched off with the blown tire. He did good to keep it level.

One of the F-14 Pilots that shot down the Libyan Migs died in a tragic antiskid failure on a wet runway. He had just transitioned to Hornets and after landing skidded off the runway much like this at Point Magu and flipped over off the runway in the wet mud. Very sad.

[labette]

Let's tip our hats to his guardian angel.

[blau993]

Oh man, his crew chief is gonna be pissed!!

Not as pissed as the dry cleaner who's gotta clean up their flight suits.

[verum ago]

this gave me a flashback to an airshow at Mountain Home AFB I attended where a Thunderbird crashed close enough to me to make me very uncomfortable from the heat:

[yardbird78]

reply to earlier posts. The front seater was definately flying the plane because F/A-18 Hornets DO NOT have flight controls in the back seat. The GIB is a weapons system operator, not a pilot. The forward visibility from the back seat is nonexistent. Even if he had flight controls, he wouldn't be flying a landing except in some dire emergency. 2nd. The tires DID NOT blow out from a too hard landing. Think about it a second. This is a Navy plane that normally lands (semi-controlled crash) on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier. The plane is at flying speed, a foot or two in the air when the hook catches the arresting cable and SLAMS the plane down on the deck. The tires and struts are designed to take that kind of punishment. As long as the pilot didn't cram the gear struts up into the fuselage, he didn't land it too hard.
It is almost certainly a malfunction of the tire, wheel or braking system. "He did a complete 360 spin on landing." When your nose is pointed back down the runway towards the approach end, you only did a 180 degree turn. A 360 would mean that he was pointed in the initial direction again.

[EnjoyingLife]

Apparently this wasn't the only tire blowout:

Posted by Leezure, Post #168, "Superhornet Mishap at Pensacola Today - ARC Air Discussion Forums", http://s102164210.onlinehome.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=103388

Great series of photos! I was there in support of the AAHF Cobra Demonstration team and can add two interesting points.

1. When we were on approach to runway 25 on Thursday afternoon (Army CV2 Caribou) we were told to follow the B1 bomber. As he landed we were told to change our approach to runway 19. After we landed we noticed the fire trucks and emergency response vehicles headed out to the B1 which had stopped on runway 25. Evidently they had blown two tires and exploded one wheel upon landing. The aircraft remained on the runway until sometime Friday night when it was towed to the static display section of the airfield.

Fast forward to Saturday's F18 incident...

2. As I was standing guard for the Huey rides (we were operating from a spot in front of the B1) the F18 blew his tire spun and ended up at our end of the flight line. As if on cue the B1 crew came out to get a better look and said "scratch them off the list of people that can give us a ration of S$@# for blowing a tire".

This was followed by a number of comments regarding the condition of Navy runways and a few good hearted high fives. All was said in good fun as they had been the unfortunate star of the show up until that moment.

Anyway, thanks for the pictures. Keep up the good work!

Wow! On this Thanksgiving season one of the many things we can be thankful for is that these accidents caused no (zero) casualties or injuries. (And a ping to Shimmer128 who's fond of the B-1 bomber.)

[Doe Eyes]

You gotta wonder how the photog just happened to be taking pictures at the time.

Was it in Arkansas? Could be a Clinton thing.

[Shimmer128]

Thanks for remembering! My husband was in the first F/A 18 training squadron, back when i first met him (VFA-108) at Cecil Field, FL

[JamminJAY]

(VFA-108) at Cecil Field, FL

Thanks for the flashback
;)

[JamminJAY]

Maybe the anti-skid system malfunctioned??

Could be,
Navy planes are carrier capable so the carriage has more flex to it over say, an F-16. Good for snagging a three wire at mil power, bad if something goes wrong without a wire holding you, the flex you know.
If I recall correctly this problem was discovered on the A model. Miramar Ca. the first accident on a patch of water on the runway, plane flipped, took out one of our best pilots (Top Gun instructor).

[EnjoyingLife]

CRASCA's photo album at Photobucket: http://photobucket.com/albums/h133/crasca/