Learjet Wheel Fire on Landing

On January 22, 2022, at 1621 hours., a Learjet 31, registration N524HC, landed on runway 13R at San Antonio International Airport. There was one problem: its nose wheel was facing the wrong direction. And the crew had no idea.
By the time the aircraft came to a stop, its nose wheel was smoking. Shortly thereafter, there were flames.
"Ops 203 (Weber) responded to the Alert Il that was toned out at 1621 hours. for an aircraft on 13R that was on fire. Ops 203 closed the runway and proceeded onto 13R between Taxiway Alpha and Taxiway Lima. ARFF was on location and quickly extinguished a small fire that had started on the nose gear tire of the aircraft. Only water was used by ARFF to put out the fire, no AFFF was used.
The fire started because of the friction of the nose gear. The nose gear was rotated 90 degrees to the direction of travel of the aircraft. The crew had stated that there was no indication of any issues with the aircraft prior to touchdown. Upon touchdown the crew was able to keep the aircraft on the runway as it came to a stop.
There were 6 passengers onboard, along with the two crew members. The passengers were transported to Million Air by Ops 213 (Clements). There were no injuries to the passengers or crew. The damage was isolated to the aircraft nose gear, tire and rim.
Steven Henderson of the local Flight Standards District Safety Office (FSDO) was brought out to the aircraft to start the investigation and speak with the flight crew at 1720 hours. Once the inspector and flight crew talked, the aircraft was released to be removed and towed to the Million Air Ramp.
The Alert II was converted to a disabled aircraft at 1724 hours, and the aircraft was towed off the runway at approximately 1825 hours. Ops 213 escorted the aircraft and tug to Million Air with Ops 203 following.
Once the aircraft was on the ramp, Ops 203 conducted a special inspection of the runway looking for FOD and damage to the runway. Some FOD was removed from the runway. A thorough inspection of the runway did not reveal any damage. The runway was reopened at 1905 hours."
[xLightly edited for clarity.]

[@machrogers]

The most impressive thing about this is the skill it took to make this video dramatic enough to watch for nearly 10 minutes. Nicely done, WYHS!

[@b.vonschnauser207]

I was hip from the beginning. It took my about 45 seconds to watch the whole thing.

[@Twitchy239]

Aircraft are some of the most impressive feats of engineering. They have been designed over years to have multiple redundancies and overengineered to ensure safety of the passengers and crew despite incredible forces applied. It really is impressive!

[@j.gregory5669]

this is an excellent 3-minute video

[@shotgunbettygaming]

Am I crazy? Everyone talking like there's a video to see. I just see a date for a live stream 1 year from now.🤣

[@hamentaschen]

Gotta say.... I love your content. Thanks.

[@chaoszombie9995]

Glad the incident get worse for the pilots on board! and well done SAAD for the work that yall did on the aircraft!!

[@andyowens5494]

I'm impressed that the tyre just wore with the wheel, rather than getting ripped off. I can't imagine it was designed to take that kind of lateral force and stay attached.

[@MultiPurposeReviewer]

Might be a beadlock. I have no idea the design of aircraft landing gear, but that would make sense how the tire stayed on.

[@andyowens5494]

@@MultiPurposeReviewer I've done a bit more research; aircraft wheels are split and a flange on one side bolts on to the rest of the wheel to fit the tyre (so similar to a beadlock). Tyres are too rigid to mount like car tyres by stretching over the bead. Even with that rigidity, it appears they can slip around the rim up to 20 degrees after fitting. It seems they are rigid enough to not come off, even when a section of wheel and tyre have been worn away.

[@JeffCowan]

Garden variety nosewheel fire. Nicely handled.

[@ClevelandAreaBodyCamera]

Fun fact, the San Antonio Police Department has a back log for body camera public records requests that goes back all the way to 2019

[@WhatYouHaventSeen]

Their oldest requests certainly go back that far (they recently fulfilled a request of mine from 2018), but AFAIK they don't process requests on a strict first-in-first-out basis. Meaning, a request submitted tomorrow could - and likely would - be processed before all other outstanding requests are closed. Do you have reason to believe otherwise?

[@ClevelandAreaBodyCamera]

@@WhatYouHaventSeen Unfortunately I do not, I requested a copy of their backlog in June and recently (I think November) I got a long spreadsheet showing just how many requests they have to process

[@ohcrap3263]

Kudos to “Duck” for keeping those units front line ready

[@JSBIRD69]

Even with the budget and training these guys get, I still hope I never have an emergency there. The job got done, but the coordination and communication were weak.

[@BChandl13]

They couldn't even figure out how to use their 10 vehicles to transfer 8 people. Imagine if they had to deal with an actual emergency. Yeesh what a sad response that was

[@caryconrad3298]

My reaction as well , how can you not know about aviation while working at an airport?

[@sinjon]

I’m just shocked they had so much trouble identifying what plane it was. Painfully slow response

[@morthomer5804]

I guess they opted not to take the high speed transition off the active.

[@JoeSmith-nu8oo]

Airport could use a camera upgrade🤣

[@randyjones5736]

That airplane is going to be there awhile. There are virtually no Lear tires available in the world right now.

[@heli-crewhgs5285]

I have two under my sofa. My cat likes to sleep inside one of them.

[@henryturnerjr3857]

How many passengers can you transport? "Never mind, I'll WALK!" 😆

[@ksteak27]

I'm glad both pixels were ok!

[@buckbuchanan5849]

Nice job by the SAT fire/rescue crew.

[@elijahrobertson5734]

What is this camera on

[@saltseaful]

Just have to quote the old saying any landing that you walk away from is a good landing

[@janinebell763]

That took so long and the information shocking.

[@jamesgardner578]

Where you watching this from??? I love spotting San Antonio as I live here but geez I can’t find a spot to watch

[@WhatYouHaventSeen]

It’s an airport surveillance camera.

[@sinjon]

How did they have so much trouble identifying the plane? It was the only one with smoke coking from it 😊

[@user-yf7rt2pz2u]

Well Mr. Rios no one had said but I will… good damn landing that took nerve and skill your a hero my man have a beer 🍺!! That had to be stressful for sure

[@kennethhuff7158]

We were taught to set up on nose of aircraft up wind ,handlines were always pulled.also when the aircraft stopped our trucks would have been there.

[@gomphrena-beautifulflower-8043]

Flown in and out of that airport many times (USAF family.) Seems response in this situation was a little bit disjointed, but the outcome was what we all ultimately want; safe egress of passengers and crew with as little damage to the aircraft as possible.

[@CAPFlyer]

It usually is when there's no warning. There was no emergency declared until after the plane touched down. They were unaware of the issue.

[@MultiPurposeReviewer]

Nice try Learject, but jetBlue 292 still holds that crown. Very impressive and successful landing though.

[@md95065]

Did it not occur to anyone that it might be easier to extinguish the fire if the fire truck went round to the side of the aircraft where the fire was? I guess not.

[@kurthunter2427]

Learjets have electric steering and judging by the position of the nose wheel looks like the steering failed on landing.

[@AlRib]

Axis ptz 🤤🤤

[@peterh222]

7:05 what does it mean "it looks like millionaire is going to bring a vehicle out here" ... is millionaire a code name, or is that how they refer to the jet passenger?

[@yzyzyzyz5032]

Millionair is one of the FBO's at SAT. They are bringing a car to take passengers to their facility as that is most likely where they were planning to park.

[@RobotWillie]

As the yz guy says, you here the one guy ask if they are going to Customs, and someone else says no they are going to Millionaire. Meaning they don't have to go park at or go through customs but are heading directly to one of the companies ramps where you can park at this airport.

[@WhatYouHaventSeen]

I believe it’s “Million Air”

[@thebluntrappa]

@@WhatYouHaventSeen it is

[@Dr_piFrog]

Hot foot!

[@heli-crewhgs5285]

The communication and situational awareness is really poor. Hopefully, after a debrief, changes were made.

[@danielpearson6306]

Most confusing communication.

[@mikeday62]

It was lucky the burning wheel plane didn't have to share the runway with other landing planes.

[@rithwanbadel]

As soon as we get there we'll get the car to refine to be heard from you and word that evolves until this morning

[@heli-crewhgs5285]

You have written utter crap and nonsense! Delete now!

[@embie5119]

"What was that again? I didn't hear what you said." Wut?

[@twincomanchepa30]

Where's the fire

[@pratamaiky100]

First :v Holy mother of God How That Just Burn The Wheel

[@fedex727rj]

Nothing like just dropping in and bouncing around.......

[@jaflkdjsfkld]

Anyone else notice the Illegal Alien busses at the beginning.

[@boltvanderhuge8711]

learjet more like searjet amirite

[@lutomson3496]

How many people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? what a waste of time and resources

[@sinjon]

“Do you know if is a large airliner or smaller plane?” “I’m gonna put water on it” What?

[@geddon436]

Bruh....just throw some water on it

[@Louisiananews]

Should have pulled hand lines right off the bat

[@joshacevedo2274]

Nah fam.

[@Louisiananews]

@@joshacevedo2274 what ever that means

[@joshacevedo2274]

@@Louisiananews what is your reasoning behind pulling a hand line off a Crash truck right off the bat?

[@RLTtizME]

@@joshacevedo2274 He has none. He would have chopped the gear off with an ax as well...and poked out a few windows while he was at it.

[@joshacevedo2274]

@@RLTtizME Apparently lol.

[@shotgunbettygaming]

Welp, I guess we'll be seeing you in 2023 Jase!🤣

[@kapikoyli]

✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈

[@JimWhitaker]

Lots of micromanagement there.

[@trvman1]

Such PROFESSIONALISM!! At 2.34, "Hey DUDE, do you know........ UNREAL.

[@TexasPilotMX]

“22” is what was said. Truck number

[@okdzgn5649]

5:23 one moment plz... take a video for my Insta fans 📸📸📸

[@wino99999]

What's that about them being a Millionaire so they're NOT going through customs.....

[@WhatYouHaventSeen]

Million Air. It’s a fixed-base operator headquartered in Houston.

[@Roguegameing]

Dude that wheel front have same as big plane in the past

[@lincolnguy1483]

That’s pretty exciting stuff at the little podunk Texas town airport. Gave them Something to do. 😆

[@randalljames1]

millions in the cost of an aircraft.. they have a $3 potato for a camera.... smdh..

[@PeteDavidson-yl3ps]

WTF are we Water RATIONING ? Soak the dam plane! By the time you see flames outside the flames are inside.

[@nejuspesnejsi]

Firefighters again toke 30 minutes before doing anything. At least their uselessness is constant. No matter if it's plane, car or house.

[@RLTtizME]

Much like your commentary. Return to Facebook.