JWA Asks for Probe of Tire Blowouts

John Wayne Airport has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate why Delta Air Lines jets have blown tires while landing at the airport nine times since 1998, officials said Saturday.

The latest tire blowout occurred Nov. 24, shutting down commercial air operations for two hours while workers removed the plane and rubber debris from John Wayne’s sole commercial runway.

It was the fourth tire blowout on the tarmac so far this year. John Wayne’s runway was shut down for four hours last year when another Delta jet blew three of its tires upon landing, requiring the plane to be hoisted off the runway, according to airport spokeswoman Ann McCarley.

Aviation experts said the number of blowouts at John Wayne is extremely high, likely exceeding those of airports many times larger than John Wayne. All nine incidents involved MD-90 jets made by Boeing.

Concerned over the cluster of tire failures, airport managers last week sent a letter to the FAA asking it to examine the situation. The FAA would not comment Saturday on what it might do, but Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer said he expects the agency to meet with airport officials this week.

McCarley said officials don’t know whether the flat tires are a coincidence or whether something about the tarmac or the MD-90 aircraft is causing the problem.

“Obviously, we need to target that particular aircraft and find a remedy,” Spitzer said. “We need to know if it’s a maintenance issue or a freak occurrence.”

Spokesmen for Delta Air Lines declined to comment Saturday.

Although no injuries have been reported in any of the incidents, tire blowouts are a serious safety threat, said Linda Pauwels, an American Airlines pilot who serves on the safety committee of the Allied Pilots Assn., a labor union representing more than 11,000 pilots. A blowout could cause a pilot to lose control of an aircraft or could create a brake fire, she said. Additionally, if a tire is weakened during landing, it could blow on takeoff and send debris into an engine, potentially causing a crash.

Pauwels said tire blowouts on commercial jets during landing are highly unusual. “I have never experienced a blowout and I’ve been flying 20 years,” she said. “And I have experienced three engine failures.”

She said one explanation could be that John Wayne’s 5,700-foot commercial runway is one of the shortest in the nation, causing pilots to brake harder during landings.

“Pilots are a little more aggressive and assertive when they land at Orange County airport because you don’t have a lot of room for error,” Pauwels said. “Your main concern is to be able to stop. I think it’s unusual that the rates are predominantly high in the MD-90s. There’s obviously something there that should be looked at.”

When a tire blows out, pilots must take immediate action to maintain the stability of the plane, which at landing is still going at a high speed.

“Anything that is unexpected and surprising requires some type of reaction and that always can precipitate something,” she said.

Airport officials said it’s normally the responsibility of the airlines to seek FAA review of reoccurring landing problems.

“But in light of everything that’s happened with the MD-90s, [Airport Director Alan L. Murphy] asked them to look into it,” McCarley said. “He felt the matter did warrant some review.”

The MD-90 was launched in 1989 and is a mid-size jet that holds up to 150 passengers. Boeing stopped making it last year.