Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency; General Evacuated; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
As the First Officer; I performed the post and pre-flight walkarounds. I did not notice anything abnormal during the inspection. Three people actually performed inspections on the aircraft after we landed as we had a bird strike during out roll out upon landing and they all reported nothing abnormal with the aircraft. The aircraft had an MEL item of a low speed flaps. This will be of significance later on. The Captain gave me the next leg. Since I am relatively new to the company and this was my first time in and out of this airport I noticed how rough the runway was during the takeoff roll. During cruise flight Center advised us that 'another aircraft had spotted a tire on our departure and that it was the shape and size of an air carrier tire.' The Captain and I looked at each other; slightly confused. I asked Center if it was a full tire; partial pieces; etc.The Captain contacted Dispatch and Maintenance Control via ACARS while I flew the aircraft and spoke with the Center controllers. The Captain also scrolled through the MFD system pages and found nothing to be out of normal parameters. We referred to the QRH for a blown tire but the procedure was not applicable to our situation. We also decided to declare an emergency as a precaution against the unknown. The Captain notified the flight attendant of our situation and then advised the passengers via a PA. When we were handed off to Approach Control we declared an emergency and requested a low pass. Descending through 10;000; the Captain assumed the controls and flew the low approaches. Because of the MEL for the low speed flaps; we elected to fly the low approach and subsequent landing at flaps 22. After the first pass Tower stated that; the gear was down. I asked if they could see the conditions of the tires. They stated that they looked to be in 'good' condition. We then went back to Approach Control and they gave us some conflicting information from what the Tower gave us. As a result we elected to do a second low approach. During this low approach; there were two aircraft with other airline pilots on the ground as well looking at our gear. They all stated that the gear was in good condition. At this point; we decided to land. We touched down in the touchdown zone and the Captain deployed the thrust reversers as we rolled out. I did notice that the landing roll was longer than I had previously experienced. Upon exiting the runway; the Captain stopped on the taxiway and emergency vehicles responded to our location. We checked the brake temperatures and decided that there was no danger to the passengers. The emergency responders were not spraying down the aircraft trying to put out any fires. We started coordinating with Operations and the city to produce buses and stairs to deplane the passengers.
After they were advised of tire parts on their departure runway the flight crew of an E145 declared an emergency; performed two precautionary fly-bys for evaluation by ground personnel and and landed at their destination with CFR standing by. The passengers were deplaned on the taxiway and bussed to the terminal.