QF A380 blows tyres on landing at YSSY

[Jarrad Phillips]

I thought the that footage they showed of the tail cam video looked specky...i just wondered why the guy had his video camera going during landing when all electronic devices needed to be switched off.....isnt that we are told all the time!

[NeilP]

I had the same thought. There's quiet a few of them on youtube...

[Benny Zheng]

Here's a shot i took of OQC when it's taxing to 16R as QF31. You can see they had probably changed the brakes on the left wheels.

[Tony G]

Well done to the maintenance staff in getting the aircraft back into service so quickly. Can never post enough positive comments about maintenace staff .

[Philip Argy]

The frequency with which we get brake lockups on the A380 suggests that there is a design problem which needs attention - I hope it is sorted out soon.

It also seems unfair to treat this as a QF issue or even as a QF engineering issue, although other airlines like Singapore don't seem to have this level of problem with their A380 brakes locking - perhaps they do and we just don't hear about it.

The SkyCam seems to show that the brakes in question were on the trailing wheels of the left bogey under the left wing, so how would this cause the nose wheel tyres to blow - was it a skew force?

[Tony G]

Excellent logic Philip. It did look like it came from the l/h mainwheel well. If that is the case, aircrew did a great job keeping the a/c on the runway. Did not notice any skewing or deviation of the aircraft on the video.

[Nigel C]

Firstly, the nose gear tyres DID NOT BLOW. Media referral to them blowing was an absolute crock of %$@&

This picture from http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/a...-1225848280655 quite clearly shows all the attention around the main gear. In fact I don't think there's anyone even standing at the nose gear...


Secondly, what 'frequency' of brake issues are you referring to? Can you provide links or evidence of this?

[Philip Argy]

I have only flown on the A380 twice, Nigel, and on both occasions there was a brake lockup problem on landing according to what the captain reported to pasengers. On the first occasion last October we blocked a taxiway at Heathrow for a good 20 minutes while fire crews checked the brakes for overheating following the lockup. On the second occasion after landing in Singapore we had to be towed the last 100m to the gate due to a "brake problem".

The first occasion from memory was OQA and the second occasion was OQC.

On top of my personal experience I have read media reports of A380 brake locking incidents over the past 12 months that seem consistent with there being a design issue causing brake locking on A380 aircraft. Here's the earliest one I could find on a quick search: http://www.impactpub.com.au/micebtn/...1620&Itemid=50

[Nigel C]

Your link merely says braking problems...it doesn't mention lockups, which is what you were inferring to as being a frequent problem.

For the couple of times this may have occurred, I'd hardly say it's a worrying 'frequency'. And given you were on both of them, perhaps it's not the aircraft's fault...

I'm sure if there was a major problem with brake locking we'd have seen and be hearing repeats of Sydney's incident everywhere where the A380's travel.


There were, however, initial concerns over brake cooling on the A380, which Singapore rectified by having cooling systems retrofitted to their first A380's. I understand the initial tight turn around between Singapore and Sydney exposed this issue.
Since that retrofit was done I've not been aware of any more issues with cooling. I presume Qantas had the same system fitted to theirs.

[Brian Wilkes]

Good point on the cooling system Nigel. SQ were also concerned about the extra weight this would have on the aircraft!

I guess it was not a problem.......