COSTA MESA : Tires Blow Out as Jet Lands at John Wayne

A failed braking system apparently caused two tires to blow out on a Northwest Airlines jetliner after it landed at John Wayne Airport on Tuesday morning, creating a loud explosion but causing no injuries among the 41 passengers and crew members aboard.

The noise of the blowouts on the Airbus A-320 traveled far and, at first, sounded like an engine exploding, said Orange County Fire Department Capt. Gary Wuchner, a member of the rescue team that approached Flight 1234 shortly after it stopped on a taxiway.

“We heard the explosion and everybody asked, ‘What’s that?’ ” Wuchner said. He and fellow firefighters at one of the airport’s fire stations began responding even before the call came in from the control tower, he said.

The 35 passengers and six crew members were kept aboard for about 40 minutes while the brakes were allowed to “cook down” through air circulation, Wuchner said. Heat from locked wheels can sometimes be 1,000 degrees or more and could have caused the other tires to blow, he said.

The main landing gear on the Airbus A-320 has four tires, two on each side.

The anti-skid system works like anti-lock brakes on a car, Northwest spokeswoman Christy Clapp said. No one knows yet what caused the system to fail, she said. The Northwest plane was taken out of service while the problem is investigated, Clapp said.

The pilot said he had no indication of a problem before landing, said Wuchner, who talked to him shortly after the touchdown.

The flight was from Seattle and was to return there at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday. Northwest offered passengers on that flight tickets on an Alaskan Airlines flight out of Long Beach Airport or Northwest’s flight to Seattle at 5 p.m., said Tom Reedy, Northwest’s manager at John Wayne.

No other flights at John Wayne were affected by the accident, airport spokeswoman Courtney Wiercioch said.

Passengers on Flight 1234 were taken off the plane while it was still on the taxiway and transported to the terminal.