Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Honolulu International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818
Monday, August 18, 2003 3:16 HST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
Both of the transport airplane's center landing gear tires (#'s 9 and 10) shredded during takeoff roll, damaging the door retraction arms and multiple fuselage skin panels. The flight crew could not retract the landing gear and elected to return to the departure airport and performed an uneventful overweight landing. Examination of the tire debris revealed there was significant inter ply tearing of the tires, suggesting the tire did not fail as a result of a cap failure. According to the operator and tire manufacturer, the failure signatures were consistent with a rapid and violent event, which can be attributed either to foreign object damage (FOD) or a low tire pressure situation. Since the #10 tire exhibited high heat signatures, the likely sequence is that the #9 wheel tire failed first, followed by the overheating of the #10 tire and its subsequent failure. The fact that no FOD was recovered with the tire debris and the fact that the nose tires did not sustain any damage, considering their in-line position with the center landing gear, lends more credence to the low tire pressure situation. The airplane underwent a regularly scheduled service check, which included a tire condition and pressure check, approximately 30 hours prior to the event. The tire pressure was not documented during the service check. A post-incident examination revealed the #9 wheel had a leaking fuse plug. The fuse plug was tested and found to have a 6-psi leak over a 12-hour time period. The pre-incident tire pressure was unknown.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the failure of the center landing gear tires as a result of low tire pressure.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 8/18/2003 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 316 |
| Event Time Zone | Hawaii Standard Time |
| Event City | Honolulu |
| Event State | HAWAII |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 96818 |
| Event Date Year | 2003 |
| Event Date Month | 8 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 211907N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1575521W |
| Event Location Airport | Honolulu International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | HNL |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 13 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 253 Hawaii Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | HNL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 13 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | HST |
| Lighting Conditions | Night |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 4000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Few |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 27 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 20 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 70 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 9 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.99 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 185 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 16888 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Aug 17 2003 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1634 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 28 2004 12:45PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Honolulu, Hawaii |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | C-FYKX |
| NTSB Number | LAX03IA259 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 129: Foreign |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Airbus |
| Aircraft Model | A340-300 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 910 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 606300 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 4 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | AAIP |
| Date of Last Inspection | Aug 16 2003 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 7 |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Air Canada |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | Air Canada Centre 1235; P.O. Box 14000 |
| Aircraft Owner City | Dorval, Quebec |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | ARNF |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | International |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | HNL |
| Departure City | Honolulu |
| Departure State | HI |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 316 |
| Departure Time Zone | HST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SYD |
| Destination City | Sydney |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | AS |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff - roll/run |
| Report sent to ICAO? | Yes |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 27 2004 2:29PM |
| User who most recently changed record | RICJ |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 8R |
| Runway Length | 12000 |
| Runway Width | 200 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |