dailynewsnblog
For the third time this week, an aircraft has burst a tire at one of America’s busiest airports, 
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). The flight, operating as 
American Airlines 3199, had just touched down from 
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) when the tire burst as the Boeing 737-800 was taxiing towards the gate.
Reports on social media are that passengers were eventually deplaned, and there were reports of the tires being smoking hot. This raises questions about the coincidence of three tires blowing at the airport in a matter of days.
Tire Bursts As Boeing 737-800 Taxis To Gate
While it remains unclear what caused the tire to burst, contributing factors can be due to extreme heat, incorrect pressure, heavy braking, structural wear and tear, or impacts from runway debris. It is worth noting that the previous two incidents at O’Hare have been in separate parts of the airport, which likely have no relation to what has occurred.
American flight 3199 had arrived from Phoenix on Friday, August 21, having departed from Phoenix at 5:03 PM, an hour later than its scheduled departure time of 3:55 PM. The flight took three hours and 16 minutes before touching down in the Windy City at 10:19 PM (19 minutes behind the scheduled arrival time of 10:00 PM).
Simple Flying reached out to American for comment; however, an airline spokesperson could not immediately be reached.
Passengers Deplaned And Aircraft Was Taken Out Of Service
Passengers reported that following the incident, those onboard were deplaned and then the aircraft was taken out of service. Reviewing FlightRadar24 shows that the plane did not operate on August 22 and remains grounded as repairs were undertaken. The aircraft is scheduled to return to service on Sunday, with its first flight as AA2799 from Chicago to 
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
The aircraft at the centre of the incident is that of 14.9 year old 737-800 bearing registration N876NN. The aircraft first entered service for the oneworld carrier in October 2011, and is configured to carry a total of 172 passengers across two classes. Details of the aircraft are below, as per ch-aviation:
Aircraft Registration | N876NN |
|---|---|
Serial Number (MSN) | 40767 |
Hex Code | AC0DD9 |
First Flight Date | September 19, 2011 |
Delivery Date | October 7, 2011 |
Configuration | C16 / Y156 |
Engines | Two CFMI CFM56-7B24 |
American operates more than 300 of this type of aircraft, and they are the backbone of its short- and medium-haul domestic and international operations. The aircraft type is the largest variant by number of aircraft in the entire AA fleet.
How Do You Change A Tire On An Aircraft?
With the plane out of service on Saturday, this will allow trained mechanics to change the aircraft tire. To do so, they must lift the aircraft safely with an approved jack to remove the axle nut or split rim bolts. When the wheel can be pulled off the landing gear, they will split the rim halves and replace the rubber or whole wheel assembly if required. Once the new tire is mounted, they will torque it to the factory specifications before ensuring it is inflated to the appropriate pressure.
Those on the flight reported the loud bang as the tire burst, and the potential vibration and noise. Fortunately, the burst tire occurred while the aircraft was taxiing, not during landing, meaning that this did not interfere with direction control as the plane was coming in to land and did not require the support of emergency services.
Earlier this week, an American aircraft burst two front landing gear tires after a short flight from 
LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and forced passengers to be deplaned and bussed to the terminal. Hours later, a 
United Airlines flight also burst a tire after landing from Omaha (OMA); the plane was safely able to exit the runway.
