Merpati B734 at Makassar on Jan 16th 2009, rejected takeoff, blown tyres

Last Update: October 19, 2012 / 13:47:42 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 16, 2009

Classification
Incident

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-400

ICAO Type Designator
B734

Indonesia's NTSC released their final report concluding the probable cause of the incident was:

- The tire failure of the left landing gear was initiated by the failure of 4 of 16 bolts installed that experienced fatigue crack.

- The operator failed to perform maintenance program to the wheel hub tie bolts especially to the cadmium re-plating.

The NTSC reported that the aircraft had actually taxied out to runway 31 for takeoff and began the takeoff roll. While accelerating through 125 knots (V1 145 KIAS) the commander noticed a vibration of the aircraft and the acceleration of the aircraft ceased, prompting the commander to reject the takeoff. The aircraft was slowed to taxi speed, the commander steered the aircraft to the runway turn area at the head of runway 13 and was about to turn around to backtrack runway 31 to the apron, when an airport security officer gave hand signals to not continue taxi. The commander therefore stopped the aircraft on the runway turning area.

Both left main wheels and tyres were severly damaged, both right hand main gear tyres deflated due to fuses melting as result of overheat. Part of the left main gear door detached.

The aircraft had accumulated 50,967 hours in 29,949 cycles, it has last ungone minor checks 36 flights hours prior to the serious incident and major checks 2,256 hours prior to the incident.

The #1 wheel (outboard left), which had been partially ground down, had 4 tie bolts missing.

The NTSC analysed that during the takeoff run the #1 tyre deflated as result of the wheel hub halves loosening due to the failure of 4 of 16 tie bolts. The #2 tyre subsequently suffered overload and burst. At 125 KIAS the captain rejected takeoff and applied brakes leading tyres #3 and #4 to hydroplane on the wet runway stopping the wheel rotation. The two right hand tyres suffered reverted rubber.

The pieces of the 4 missing bolts were recovered from the Makassar Airport and showed fatigue cracks from the bolt threads as result of corrosion that started after the cadmium plating peeled off.

The component maintenance manual instructed a cadmium re-plating after 10 wheel hub assemblies. However, this had not been done leading to corrosion in the bolt threads developing and leading to fatigue crack initiation.

The NTSB annotated that the occurrence was very similiar to the occurrence on Oct 20th 2008.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 16, 2009

Classification
Incident

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-400

ICAO Type Designator
B734

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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