TAMPA, Fla. – At least one tire on an American Airlines airplane exploded on Wednesday morning as the aircraft was taking off from the Tampa International Airport.
The incident was captured on video and posted to YouTube by Captain Steven Markovich, a channel that airline-related videos to more than 18,000 followers.
The video shows one of the tires on the right side rip to shreds and spark, sending smoke billowing across the runway. The flames ignited right underneath the wing of the plane that was loaded with 1,000 gallons of jet fuel.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, first responders were called to American Airlines Flight 590 at Taxiway W just before 8 a.m.
No injuries were reported, according to CNN, but the Boeing which was bound for Phoenix had to abort.
An American Airlines spokesperson said 174 passengers and six crew members were on board.
American Airlines said the plane, a Boeing 737-800, experienced a mechanical issue related to the tire before takeoff, Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
Aviation Expert Ed Booth said one of three things could have led to the tire’s catastrophic failure.
“A piece of debris on the runway, we remember the Concorde crash from 2,000 is an example of how that happens. The tire can be worn beyond limits and fail, or there could be a dragging break that could overheat it and cause it to explode. We have some unusually high temperatures right now. So heat is certainly a factor,” Booth said.
Booth, who says he’s flown out of Tampa International Airport several times, says the pilot had to make the split-second decision to abort the takeoff and deal with the problem on the ground. Booth says the pilot and the crew came to this conclusion instinctively without knowing the exact cause of the failure.
Booth says airplane tires in general are highly stressed.
“They are often reused as recaps that’s approved by the FAA. They carry a lot of pressure typically 280 to 300 pounds of pressure compared with 32 pounds and an average car tire. As a precaution, they are inflated with nitrogen, which does not contain oxygen. So there’s less to support combustion when there is a fire. So there are all sorts of safety measures that are brought into play,” he said.
A social media user who claimed to be on the flight gave an eyewitness account.
“There wasn’t much runway left when we finally stopped, we were fully loaded with four hours of fuel. When we stopped, the captain said the firetrucks were coming only out of an abundance of caution, but from row 30, we could see flames,” they said. “Tires on one side shredded and burned, the other two were flat.”
The incident comes just one day after two planes came within 700 to 1,000 feet of each other over Syracuse, New York. It’s unclear how close they were horizontally and the FAA has not classified this as a close call.
And just last week an United airplane in Los Angeles lost a wheel as it was taking off. The wheel was recovered and the plane landed safely in Denver.
But perhaps the biggest close call this year occurred in January over Portland, Oregon when minutes after takeoff a door plug blew out, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane in flight. Passengers’ clothing and phones were ripped out of their hands and sent hurtling into the night sky. All of these incidents are being investigated by the FAA.
In regards to the blown-out tire in Tampa, News4JAX asked Booth how often things like this happen and they are not seen on camera.
"Oh, probably once a day, at least once a week you would have a tire failure,” he said.
Booth said airline passengers should feel safe when they look at the big picture noting that there hasn’t been a commercial plane crash where all passengers died in 23 years. With millions of people flying each day, he said flying the skies is still safer than driving on the road.