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Superhornet Mishap at Pensacola Today


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Just got home from the Pensacola trip and had to get these up. These are straight off the stick - no editing.

After performing the usual impressive Demo, the Superhornet came in to land. Almost immediately upon touching down there was a loud "BANG" - he blew a tire. He got the jet slowed down and held it in the runway until the other tire gave way, then she broke loose. The back end came around, and you could see him fighting it and adjusting into it as much as possible, but things progressed and the plane spun around. He did almost a complete 360, then the tail end went off the runway and into the dirt. The stabs dug in, the nose lifted up, and for a moment things looked as if the jet would flip over backwards.

Thank God it did not, and came to a stop directly in front of me. The aircrew got out quickly, and the jet remained there for the rest of the show.....Amazing.

The pilot did an incredible job controlling the plane, keeping it in the runway as long as possible, and getting it slowed. Had it happened differently he actually could have spun off into the Blues line as his tire exploded right before he passed behind them. Thank God no-one was hurt and the plane appeared to have sustained only minimal damage.

Here are the pictures:

tire1.jpg

tire2.jpg

tire3.jpg

tire4.jpg

tire5.jpg

tire6.jpg

tire7.jpg

tire8.jpg

tire9.jpg

tire10.jpg

Edited by CRASCA
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Wow Craig, excellent sequence of photos !

Sure glad it JUST looked spectacular and no one was hurt ...

Thanks for sharing and nice work !

Gregg

Edited by GreyGhost
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WHOA BABY ! Outstanding series of shots. Now if they were flying a Cat...

The aircrews' lucky that Rummy's gone. They won't have to appear before him and explain why "they" blew 2 mains and got dirt on the jet....

"Right Place, Right Time" !

ThudDriver :wave:

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correct me if i'm wrong - but such tyre failures are almost always pilot error? jamming too hard on the brakes upon touchdown; flat spotting the tyre and causing it to burst immediately?

i can just see those photos appearing in like... "combat aircraft" or "air forces monthly".. way to go!

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correct me if i'm wrong - but such tyre failures are almost always pilot error? jamming too hard on the brakes upon touchdown; flat spotting the tyre and causing it to burst immediately?

It's not always pilot error, if the anti-skid-system is not working correctly you could jam the wheels, or it's even possible that they had a bad tire, things like that happen. To keep it on the runway you use differential braking. The F-4 Boldface procedures calls for switching of the anti-skid-system after one blown tire to help keep the jet on the runway.

I wonder what the backseater was thinking. I would have had my hands on the yellow-black handles in case the jet get out of control and into the weeds at high speed, he just kept is hands on the dashboard.

SCOUT

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correct me if i'm wrong - but such tyre failures are almost always pilot error? jamming too hard on the brakes upon touchdown; flat spotting the tyre and causing it to burst immediately?

With modern, sophisticated anti-skid systems it's hardly ever the pilot's fault now; it's usually some mechanical problem, either with the anti-skid system or the tire itself. If it is the pilot's fault, it is typically a case of an extremely hard landing, but since it's a Navy jet, designed for carrier landings, I doubt that's the problem.

Regards,

Murph

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Great shots - great to see nobody was hurt!

correct me if i'm wrong - but such tyre failures are almost always pilot error? jamming too hard on the brakes upon touchdown; flat spotting the tyre and causing it to burst immediately?

At the Abbotsford Airshow I saw belting showing through on 3 tires (each on different planes). Don't know if that was an issue here, but it made me shudder a bit.

WB

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With modern, sophisticated anti-skid systems it's hardly ever the pilot's fault now; it's usually some mechanical problem, either with the anti-skid system or the tire itself. If it is the pilot's fault, it is typically a case of an extremely hard landing, but since it's a Navy jet, designed for carrier landings, I doubt that's the problem.

Regards,

Murph

an F-16 MLG tyre is changed every.. 20 landings right? plus it's got dual channel braking from the toe brakes.. most of the cases i've heard of an F-16 braking problem were usually due to the wheel speed sensors or or the brake controller, or the hydraulic lines, or the valves... etc

but i HAVE seen a blown tyre from a legacy type bird - definitely pilot error. a huge flat spot, burst tyre, to the point that the alloy rims got ground off too. whew...

David

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Craig,

Great pics, although I think at some point I would've been backstepping a bit, thats a lot of out of control moving pretty quickly.

Jeff

Jeff,

Not to worry, I have a long lens! <_<

Thanks for the remarks everyone. And yes - the right place at the right time.

My Wife / Son and I were leaving the flightline to go to the Museum when, by request, I got a call from our own "Meathooks" to let me know the Superhornet was taxiing out. I turned the car around and drove back in so I could shoot the Superhornet Demo.

It was truly amazing to watch. One of those things that you just don't see. It was surreal. Once I heard the tire blow I just kept the camera on him and the finger on the button. All of the other press members had set their cameras down or were looking down at their shots. I was just hoping to get some cool smoke shots as I new what had happened. I had no idea what was about to happen.

Edited by CRASCA
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