“Cornflower Plane Crew Tensed Up — And Rightly So’

The pilot analyzed the work of the crew of the Belavia plane, which had a flat tire.

The crew of the Belavia plane, a tire of which actually burst, acted strictly according to the instructions of the emergency map, a former pilot of the passenger airliner explains to Euroradio.

“The crew of the “cornflower” plane tensed up — and rightly so — they opened the emergency map and read their further actions in it twice.

I cannot yet say whether this incident is an incident or a prerequisite for an accident. The passengers' reaction is nervous (they are all very nervous lately).

On the evening of November 1, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft of Belavia airlines blocked the runway at the Minsk National Airport. Its tire burst.

The plane was flying from Istanbul to Minsk. Aviation Telegram channels wrote that the tire burst during takeoff: pieces of rubber were found on the runway at Istanbul airport after the Belarusian plane took off. The crew received the message about the damage to the landing gear after takeoff and decided to proceed to their destination.

Before landing in Minsk, the plane passed over the runway at an altitude of 275 meters, made several circles in the holding area, after which it was able to land. No harm done.

Now let's explain:

“Let's figure out what happened. Firstly, during the pre-flight inspection there were no comments on the condition of the tires (as wheel tires are called in aviation).

Secondly, no one wrote in Telegram channels that the crew heard a popping sound during the take-off run. This is normal — the pneumatic probably deflated quietly during taxiing, and completely collapsed during takeoff. And pieces of it remained on the runway.

Thirdly, the Turkish dispatcher, following up with the crew, only reported the supposed destruction of the pneumatic.

And then, acting strictly according to the instructions of the emergency map, the plane descended to an altitude of 900ft with the landing gear extended, and the controller, observing it visually, confirmed that the tire was destroyed.

After landing, the plane stopped, and the technical service took measures to evacuate the plane from the runway. Our interlocutor says that in his time, in such cases, a special lift on a trolley was brought under the stand with a damaged wheel, and then the plane was slowly towed away”.

“As a rule, passengers in such a situation are dropped off at the runway and taken by bus to the terminal”.