A300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft
We had a normal taxi out and departure from San Juan; Puerto Rico with no anomalies noted. After leveling at FL 320 an ECAM brake temperature high message was received. The ECAM wheel page was displayed with all four brakes on the left landing gear 300 Celsius and climbing. The ECAM checklist called for the landing gear down and brake fans on.The temperature continued to climb. In order to complete checklist of extending the landing gear we had to descend to FL200 in order to slow to Vlo 270/.59 at our weight. We requested and received a clearance from ATC to descend to FL200.It is worth noting that in my years of experience on the A300; I have not seen brake high temperatures at cruise. I have seen brake high temperatures after takeoff in the summer at high pressure altitude airports with long takeoff runs like DEN. In addition; when brake temperature indication malfunction it usually displays as one brake temperature gauge erratic or off scale high/low; not all four brake temperatures climbing linearly on one landing gear truck within a few degrees of each other.Although; the checklist did not indicate land ASAP; I informed my FO that because of the way all four brake temperatures where climbing while at cruise we could not rule out the possibility of the first indications of a wheel well fire. So; rather that continuing on route out over water further away from possible divert airfields; I chose to enter a hold at [an intersection] on the SID. During the time to descend to FL200 to extend the gear I scrolled the ECAM pages to look at hydraulics; fuel; bleed to see if any other problems where manifesting with this event and my FO did a great job looking up closest airfields in the event our situation worsened. He indicated Punta Cana; Dominican Republic was the closest airfield with a 10;000 feet runway with VOR approaches. Only a few miles more was Aguadilla; Puerto Rico with an 11;700 foot runway with VOR and RNAV approaches.Due to the fact that Punta Cana sometimes has poor radar coverage and poor English proficiency and Aguadilla was only 2 to 3 miles further; we agree we would divert to Aguadilla if our situation warranted an immediate landing. As we descended the brake temperatures peaked at about 480 Celsius and began to cool. The brake temperatures continued to cool; ruling out the possibility of a wheel well fire.Since the ACARS is difficult to communicate complex issues; I requested my FO to call flight control station. While we were within the approximate 200 miles VHF range limit; he was not able to establish a connection. We then reverted to looking up VHF frequencies for GulfNet ARINC and established a phone patch with flight control. Note; charts show GulfNet coverage depiction is for above FL300. At our present altitude of FL200 we had trouble communicating. With the gear up and brake temperature indication now normal and all other systems indicating normal. I agree with flight control it was safe to continue.We climb back to cruise attitude and began to monitor our fuel situation to insure adequate fuel to destination and alternate. We continue brief communication via ACARS with flight control for updates until [we get] back in JETCOM coverage. Despite a company NOTAM of experiencing disruptive radio interference by sound like talk radio; we did not receive such interference. But; while off the coast we were unable to establish JETCOM stations. Closer to [land] we made contact on JETCOM station with flight control. I wanted to discuss with them in detail our situation and landing strategy. I indicated to flight control and maintenance that all 'four brake temperatures on left landing gear had approached 500 Celsius before cooling and was concerned we could have melted one or more tire fuse plugs. ' As a note; I had never seen brake temperatures ever get that high on the A300.Out of an abundance of caution; in the event the brake temperature indications where correct and had blowna tire or tires; flight control and I agreed we should [request priority handling] and have emergency equipment standing by on landing. I ask flight control if they still wanted us to continue [to destination]; because if we had blown tires we could possibility close the long runway. Flight control asks us to continue to [destination] and slow down to allow the congestion [at our destination] to clear.During the landing briefing my FO and I discussed in detail how we were going to handle the landing with possible blown tires and review [aircraft] evacuation if the situation warranted. On the recommendation of my FO we went as far as recovering our reflective vest to have them handy in the event of emergency evacuation to be visible in the dark to crash fire and rescue. Fortunately; the landing was uneventful. We cleared the runway with normal brake temperature indication and request fire and rescue to follow us to our parking position.This event highlights the lack of inflight voice communication with A300 on this route with flight control. Our international aircraft are equipped with SATCOM and HF Radios. The A300 as you know have had the HF radios pulled out leaving with VHF communication only. So we are left with VHF ARINC and JETCOM with limit range. In the old days much of our inflight and on ground communications domestically was done on JETCOM. Today with many of our aircraft using SATCOM and crew members using personal cell phones on the ground to communicate with flight control the JETCOM network only gets used on rare inflight occasions. Because of this; I think the network is not used enough to identify station outages and reliability issues. So; in situations like this when timely voice communication with flight control is necessary; the system is unreliable. Further complications [on] this route is the VHF ARINC coverage is for FL300 and above. Sometimes; out of SJU we file at FL280 for winds or in situation like this when the aircraft is restricted to lower that FL300 GulfNet ARINC coverage becomes very patchy.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
A300 flight crew experienced heating brake indications after takeoff. Brakes eventually cooled; so flight crew landed at the destination in a precautionary emergency status.