Learjet 60 Aircraft Lands With Blown Rear Tire
The Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service was on alert for the landing of a learjet 60 aircraft on Sunday afternoon [Apr 6] after receiving a report that the plane was experiencing landing gear issues.
The aircraft landed safely without incident and it was observed by the fire crews that the outer left tire on the port side main landing gear was flat.
Fire Service spokesperson Lieutenant Leonard Davis said, “At approximately 4:41 pm the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service received a call from Bermuda Tower of a Learjet with landing gear issues approximately 10 miles outside of island.
“Watch Commander Paul Dill of the Airport Division stated that “as a precautionary measure the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service was asked to take up standby positions off the runway for the arriving aircraft.”
“The aircraft landed safely without incident and came to a stop on a nearby taxiway”. It was observed by the fire crews that the outer left tire on the port side main landing gear was flat.
“The aircraft was a medevac travelling from Santa Maria, Azores en-route to Bermuda for a schedule tech stop when it blew a tire during takeoff. There were 5 persons on board and there were no injuries reported.”
Why did they continue to Bermuda and not return to Santa Maria if they suspected a blown tire on take off?
Either way it had to land wether it turned around or not. Might as well just continue on inna.
Depends if they knew of the defected tire on takeoff, it would have been safer to return to the point of departure. Flying all the way to Bermuda and God forbid the weather be more adverse than forecasted and a subsequent accident take place, then the airport could have been shut down preventing other traffic departing and arriving to the island.
Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing!
I’m the pilots knew exactly what they were doing…why even comment?
I’m sure…(correction)
First pilots have a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast which is roughly 24 hrs of weather data. Second, what is the sense of landing back in the Azores and have to burn off 3- 4 hrs of fuel to get below the Maximum Landing Weight.Instead they had to make a technical stop in BDA anyway. Makes more sense to me what the Pilot in Command did.
Airline Transport Pilot
First, it’s senseless to second guess the decision of the flight crew. They had more knowledge of their fuel situation, weather conditions, flight mission, etc. I suspect that Bermuda has better emergency services than Santa Maria. The plane probably had too much fuel and would have needed to dump or burn off enough to get the weight down to a manageable amount to land with a landing gear problem. The duel wheels of each main gear provides added safety if one tire is blown, so it doesn’t appear that they were in any immediate danger. I’d say they made the correct decision (obviously.)