Northwest jet makes emergency landing

JEP

Does It Really Matter....?
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oops. I pressed the wrong button..........


Northwest jet makes emergency landing in Michigan after tire blows
Associated Press

Published December 26, 2003 LAND27

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - A Northwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing Friday morning after a tire on the plane blew out, a company spokeswoman said. No one was injured.

Flight 1723 from Grand Rapids to Detroit, which had 124 passengers on board, returned to Gerald R. Ford International Airport shortly after its takeoff, said Mary Stanik, a spokeswoman for Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest.
 
Could have been alot of reasons...maybe it would have been easier to do repairs at GRR. Perhaps the weather at the destination airport was less that perfect for a tire-out landing. Maybe it's in their OPSPECS....who knows.
 
Or maybe because a blown tire is an emergency, and emergencies require us to land at the nearest suitable airport.

A blown tire is nothing to mess around with. Especially on a heavy jet with passenger lives at stake. The wheels have to stay down in case of fire, and depending on the severity of the situation, may require an overweight landing.

Again, nothing to play around with.
 
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Or maybe because a blown tire is an emergency, and emergencies require us to land at the nearest suitable airport.

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Could be....but not always so cut and dry (IMHO).

For example, an engine failure in a twin. In flight, this would constiture an emergency for all intensive purposes. Would I land at an unattended field at night if it's right under me if there's an airport with services 20 miles ahead of me? Probably not if I determine that the airport with services is a better choice.
 
just to follow up, another reason I asked the question is because:

THE DISTANCE FROM KGRR TO KDTW IS 104 MILES AT 113 DEGREES.

That couldn't take them that long.
 
If you're departing GRR for DTW and you blow a tire, the last thing you really want to do is retract your landing gear in some cases.

There was a case in Africa where a DC-8 (or some other jurassic jet) took off with low pressure in their tires, blew a couple, started a fire with the others, retracted the gear and the fire weakened the wing spar and had an in flight breakup.

Once you land with blown tires, you're going to shut down the runway for quite a while. Might as well shut down GRR than shutdown DTW!
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Point taken ! Just asking questions, not saying they should have done this or that? Inquiring minds want to know....
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Would I land at an unattended field at night if it's right under me if there's an airport with services 20 miles ahead of me? Probably not if I determine that the airport with services is a better choice.



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That's why we say the nearest suitable airport. It adds pilot discretion to the mix. Just be prepared to justify your choice.

Additionally, it is the nearest airport in terms of time and not distance. If you are directly over an airport at 30,000 feet, it might take you longer to actually get there than another suitable airport 100 NM away.
 
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