Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
The inside tire on the right main gear left debris on runway during takeoff. Witnesses say that at approximately 4;000 FT down the runway; rubber started separating. An Airbus crew said that it looked like 30-40 pieces of rubber were laying on the runway. We were notified by Center 15 minutes after departure of what happened. We had no idea that this took place. We started the communication and information gathering process; declared an emergency with Center and made an uneventful landing at destination.
During climb; Center told us that Tower wanted to talk to us. Tower advised us that after our take-off there were many pieces of tire left on runway. An Airbus pilot then said he witnessed a bucketful of foot long pieces being picked up. After receiving [this] information; we were approaching cruise alt and decided to continue to destination. Declared an emergency and landed without incident. Later found the tire inflated but most of the rubber missing outside of chord.
Air Carrier flight crew is informed by ATC that one of their tires shed most of its' rubber during takeoff. Flight continues to destination and lands normally after declaring an emergency. The tire was found inflated but missing most of its' tread.