Airbus Brake Fire
- Thread starter MikeD
- Start date
Orange Anchor
New Member
This was discussed on a number of boards including some with firefighters. The general consensus was this was a very unorganized, dangerous and badly planned goat rope. Additionally, that no one was injured was truly a miracle.
As a firefighter, where it went wrong was with the crew telling the firefighters not to fight it at first. Yes, I understand that they're doing a test of the brakes and a small fire might be a possibility. But tactically speaking, the firefighters approach was correct, their initial attack with just water in order to cool down the brakes is a way to make that happen.....but depending on the composition of the brake/MLG metal components, things can get bad once a fire develops. That's where the Class D dry chems come in. However, as the temps rise in the brakes and the tires start cooking off, you're pretty much done from there. Once one tire goes, they're pretty much all going to go in very short order. I was surprised to see the one firefighter begin approaching again after initially retreating as he should've have, but coming back before all the tires had blown. Also good job of them staying clear of the underside of the fuselage, since a puncture of a fuel cell from a tire explosion or failure of the MLG bogie and resultant collapse, can occur.
Without seeing the whole video and where other fire units were positioned, I can't (and likely no one can) really make a professional assessment of whether or to what degree of goat rope this was.
So far as the flight crew, their calling for airstairs.....well.....they're the ones that didn't want the fire attacked in the first place initially, so either use the slide, or the cockpit rope. The attack crew was busy here, and I couldn't see the rescue crew to see what they were doing or where they were positioned at the time.
cloudman
Well-Known Member
I remember this series. "If it ain't Boeing, it ain't going" :rawk: