EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Maintenance Action; General Evacuated
Human Factors; Aircraft
After completing a normal stabilized visual approach; the Captain was executing the landing flare. Immediately after touchdown; it felt as if he had landed with the toe brakes applied. He immediately asked me 'Are you on the brakes!?' to which I replied 'No'. The aircraft started to skid; and then started to yaw to the right. The aircraft came to a stop [very quickly]. Once we stopped; the Captain immediately contacted Tower and informed the Controller that we had 'spun off the runway'. The Tower asked us if we could move the aircraft; to which he replied 'We think so.' The aircraft was able to move under its own power; clear of the runway; at which point we stopped and set the parking brake. The Captain proceeded to inform the passengers of the situation; while I spoke to the emergency crews that were sent to meet us. The emergency crews asked me to describe what happened and I told them that 'It appears that we may have had some kind of braking malfunction'. The Captain coordinated with operations and emergency services to evacuate the passengers. He asked the passengers if there were any injuries; after the passengers replied in the negative; we proceeded to remove the passengers off the aircraft.After the passengers were deplaned I performed a post flight walk around and noticed that all 4 main tires were blown and off their rims and that the nose wheel was turned almost 90 degrees. However; I am not sure if this was due to the Captain steering the aircraft or a mechanical issue. The brakes did not appear to be smoking or overheated. I did notice a substantial amount of fluid underneath; and on the fuselage of the aircraft. Upon returning to the flight deck; Maintenance asked us to put up the flaps and deplane as they were going to have to jack up the aircraft. Upon deplaning the aircraft the aircraft was shutdown. There were no known or anticipated threats or errors prior to the event. At this time I do not know why the aircraft would have behaved in this manner.
We were on the visual approach. It was dark and winds were reported to be slightly gusty out of the northwest. We were set up for a flaps 45 landing and the approach went as we had briefed it. We touched down and the initial touchdown felt fine but almost immediately after that (before the nose wheel was on the ground) it felt as if the aircraft was braking. I felt some rumblings like brake feedback through the rudder pedals even though I wasn't on the brakes. I asked the First Officer if he was on the brakes and he replied no. The aircraft then started veering off to the right. I attempted to stop it using rudder and differential brakes. I remember reaching down to see if the parking brake was on but do not recall if it was or if I moved the lever. I think I also hit the steering disconnect button but again I don't recall as I was focused on trying to control the aircraft. By this time the aircraft had started to skid down the runway a bit and it appeared as if we were going to exit the runway. As the aircraft slowed down and it became apparent I couldn't keep it on the runway; I then started to attempt to steer us away from other obstacles. The aircraft came to rest on a taxiway facing to the north. It did not appear we ever left pavement or hit anything. After we came to a stop we notified Tower we had directional control difficulties and told them where we were. They asked if we could move at all. I attempted to see and after moving forward a few feet realized that we had blown tires. We were clear of the runway at this point and I told Tower we couldn't. By this time fire and rescue had shown up and Tower gave us their frequency. We started talking to fire and rescue and they said we weren't on fire and they could see one blown tire but couldn't finish the inspection with the engines running. I started the APU and shut the engines down at which point they informed me all four tires were blown and there was no fire or smoke. I then let the Flight Attendant and passengers know what happened and called Operations and Maintenance. They determined we would deplane on the taxiway. They coordinated and got a bus and air stairs out to the plane and we deplaned. I then contacted Dispatch and the Chief Pilot.
EMB145 flight crew reports landing with all four main wheel brakes locked causing all four tires to blow and the aircraft to skid onto a taxiway facing 90 degrees to the runway.