Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250; Flight Crew Type 13500
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Diverted; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Aircraft
[We had a] normal takeoff on the runway close to ATOG. Rotation initiated at 142 KIAS; ground speed approximately 165 KTS. No adverse conditions were noticed with gear retraction and clean up. While at cruise; Minneapolis Center informed us the Tower reported we were one of four possible aircraft that may have lost some rubber on the runway on takeoff. I called the 'A' Flight Attendant; and asked her if she or anyone else had heard or felt anything unusual during the takeoff; and she stated she had not and no one else had noticed anything unusual. I then talked with the 'B' Flight Attendant; and he stated he thought 'we might have run over something on takeoff'. I then contacted Dispatch and informed him what Center had told us and that I suspected we could have some tire damage. I suggested we could divert and deal with it there as we have Maintenance on the field and it would still be daylight with good weather conditions. Dispatch then contacted Maintenance Control who preferred us to continue to our destination. Five minutes later; Dispatch contacted us and stated they had decided jointly that diverting was a better choice. We agreed and began our diversion to the other airport. We declared an emergency with ATC and requested holding at 10;000 FT to burn off enough fuel to land below our MGLW [Maximum Gross Landing Weight]. We held for about 20 minutes while the flight attendants prepared the cabin for an emergency landing. We then flew a low approach over the runway so the Tower and fire trucks could help us determine if; indeed; we did have damage to our tires and to what extent. The Tower stated the last fire truck detected some damage to our right inside main gear tire. We then flew a left downwind approach and landing with noticeable degradation of the landing gear. We stopped the aircraft on the runway with no directional control issues other than the obvious destruction of the right inside main tire. The Fire Department indicated through the use of their FLIR equipment that the right inside main tire was extremely hot and falling apart. When we were sure of the safety of the aircraft; we shut the engines down and requested a tug to tow us to the gate. After the tug was hooked up; they attempted to move the aircraft but were unable to do so without further damage. Maintenance determined the tires needed to be changed on the runway before the aircraft could be moved. Station Ops had the Passengers deplane and take buses to the terminal and board another airplane. Maintenance changed the tires and we were then tugged into a remote gate. We preflighted the other aircraft and; with the same flight attendants; boarded the passengers and departed.Some final thoughts; even though we reviewed the emergency evacuation QRH items; my timing on letting the Flight Attendants know when we were one minute from landing came too early; and as a result they ended up calling out their commands longer than normal. After ensuring the aircraft was safe I called for flaps up when I should have left them in the 40 position due to possible damage from the tires.
The Captain and I checked the weather and noticed rain in the forecast for our time of arrival which was taken into consideration and made the Center plan seem a bit more desirable. That and the fact that having daylight on our side would have of course made any outside visual confirmation much easier.I actually think that this event went very smoothly and was handled well by all parties involved. The presence of tire pressure sensors of course would have given us some valuable information regarding what to expect on the landing. This seems like a potentially common enough event that maybe some specific QRH guidance could be developed for such an event.
A B737-700 diverted to land after it became likely they had suffered tire damage on their takeoff. Upon landing it was clear the likelihood was confirmed.