Two aircraft maintenance workers dead after tire explodes

Really? You didn’t know?

I’m surprised.

Look, if it’s dangerous to inflate a six or ten ply truck tire to 80 psi, why would inflating a 28 ply aircraft tire to 300 PSI be any less dangerous?

There is far more energy in an aircraft tire than even the tires on a semi truck.
 
Worked with a man who served in the navy aboard aircraft carrier. He said inflating tires for aircraft is flat out dangerous. He saw three blow ups in one cruise.
 
Interesting that there were three casualties. No tire cage? Failed tire cage?

We had a tail wheel explode in the hangar because someone was inflating it with the high side of a nitrogen cart and wasn't using a cage. No one died but there were holes punched in the hangar wall.
 
Astro14 said:
Or an arresting gear cable.
Click to expand...
I didn’t want to get really graphic, but yes. That’s even worse.

In my 5.4 years on the GW thankfully the only fatality was when 2 F-18 pilots somehow collided on ops in the gulf. Both had to eject and both aircraft were lost. One pilot survived; I think the official call on the pilot who didn’t was a canopy strike.

The worst was when we were on port call in Bahrain, Gulf Air 072… I was in the security detachment at the time, and Bahrain asked the GW for assistance in recovery. We had all the small boats in the water and had to pull bodies from the water. Thankfully I was not picked to be in the boats; after those people came back you could tell that experience had forever changed their lives, and not for the better.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Air_Flight_072
 
Some old GM/Chevy pickup trucks used 16.5" split rims, you have to either use a cage or wrap a good size chain around it and use a clamping air chuck. They could be deadly, I saw one let go, lucky the guy was standing way away from it, it put a hole through the garage roof.
 
Trav said:
Some old GM/Chevy pickup trucks used 16.5" split rims, you have to either use a cage or wrap a good size chain around it and use a clamping air chuck. They could be deadly, I saw one let go, lucky the guy was standing way away from it, it put a hole through the garage roof.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of Deuce and a half Army trucks and the split ring wheels they used when I saw this thread.
 
I read about an airman working on a C-130 and lost both arms when the tire exploded.

Tires can be very dangerous.
 
I used to do tires and brakes on DC-8's. Its been a few minutes but if I remember correctly the tires came in from our flight line already deflated.

After we had assembled a new tire/wheel assembly, when it came time to inflate the tire, it was rolled into the tire cage, the cage was secured and latched shut, and then you inflated the tire through an opening in the cage. It then sat in the cage for 24 hrs, and the next day was removed from the cage if the pressure hadnt dropped by more than a set amount. If it had leaked, there was a separate protocol for dealing with that, which involved deflating it to a point, checking for leaks, then disassembly/reassembly and starting the process all over.

They had safety protocols and they beat them into your brain from day one. These tires will kill you if you get complacent.

I dont even like hooking up the compressor to air up my rarely driven Toyota truck. About 20 years ago I was walking into Krogers, about 10 ft away from a car and one of its tires burst, luckily I was facing the other way. The grit and gravel that shot up and hit my arms and legs felt like bullets. Being next to a high pressure aircraft tire, you might as well be standing next to a bomb going off.
 
Back in the day, a water tank ( probably about 750 gallons) had a leak on one side that was only about 3 feet from a cement wall that had earth on the other side, in J&L Steel Pitrsburgh North Side Rooling Mill. The tank was drained and a welder assigned to put a large plate patch on it to cover the leak and a much wider area so he welded onto good metal. After welding it he pressure tested it looking for leaks. He was between the patch and cement wall when the patch blew pinning him between the patch and cement wall and killing him. Air pressure multiplied by square inches it's working on = huge force numbers. And a pressurized gas does not suddenly loose all its pressure when things let loose. Pressurizing with a very low compression liquid like water and a source with a very limited supply rate results in a sudden total drop of pressure if something letts loose, much safer to be around. Everyone in that mill was told that lesson after that.
 
Can’t imagine how this could have happened.

There must be pieces missing that we don’t know about.

Why didn’t the mechanics deflate it?

If the line mech who removed it knew it was going to the tire shop, why didn’t he deflate it?

RIP and prayers for the families and recovery for the injured.
 
RooflessVW said:
From Reddit:

"I work here in ATL for delta. This happened in the wheel and brake shop. They were in the process of disassembling the wheels tie bolts and forgot to depressurize the tire. The hub shot out killing 2 and apparently taking off the legs of the third who is in the hospital."
Click to expand...
This is a fairly accurate depiction of what happened. The wheel and brake shop receives dozens/hundreds of tires a day for repair and overhaul. The assemblies are shipped in by truck and aircraft from all over the world. The receiving dock is completely filled with unserviceable assemblies every morning.

The procedure for transport is to deflate the tires before shipment. Somewhere along the lines this one step was overlooked. The mechanics (they're unlicensed 'helpers') that break down the wheel/tire assemblies are supposed to verify the deflation, pull the bearings from the wheels, and tag every item before the disassembly starts.

This is a very saddening tragedy and the root cause will be found. We're seeing the aftermath of this procedural failure. The details are that a nose wheel (no brake assembly) was being disassembled while still under full pressure. Two men died and a third lost his legs and is still in critical condition.

Here is a google photo of the receiving dock where the unserviceable wheels are dropped off every day. You can see that the dock is filled to capacity.

looading dock.webp
 
I have never even been close to an airliner tire. But I wonder, if I were designing a system to inflate these tires, I would locate the compressor or gas source a good distance away from the tire, use a long filling tube between the gas source and the tire. And while the filling was going on, have the technician away from the tire. How is it actually done? Does the technician stand next to the tire he is filling?
 
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