This sounds like it came out of a “How hot was it?” joke. A Delta 747 was landing I Atlanta this morning when the tires caught on fire. It rolled down the run way with flames shooting up from and engulfing the tires. I looked at the after pictures and it doesn’t appear that all of the tires burned, but the one on the back left side look melted. And, no, global warming isn’t to blame. According to a statement from Delta, a tire blew. That, along with hot landing gear caused the tire to catch fire.
On the plus side, all the passengers got to ride the emergency slide off the plane. Some even got to walk on the wing and go down a slide off that.
Passengers were forced to evacuate a #Delta Boeing 757 (N767DL) after it landed at #Atlanta today at 5:37 p.m. Flight #DL1437 took off from #Richmond. The left main gear tire blew during landing, which sparked a fire.
🎥 ©Mike Russell | 📷 ©Bruce Campbell | ©Jean Druckenmiller pic.twitter.com/5libGzQtT7
— FlightMode (@FlightModeblog) August 3, 2023
Apparently this isn’t an isolated incident. I found several videos of plane tires exploding and then catching fire. On video appears to be an instructional video that says if it happens while taking off that Boeing recommends that the takeoff continue. The video looks like it’s from the 70s. They still thought smoking was healthy then, so.