Summary
- The Air Canada Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner had a brake fault and a blown tire, causing smoke during takeoff.
- The Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) notified the pilots of the tire issue, prompting them to return to the airport.
- The pilots safely landed the aircraft after burning off fuel, and the landing gear was inspected and replaced the next 24 hours.
An Air Canada Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner got a report during climb-out from takeoff that smoke was observed from the aircraft. The pilots decided to return to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) after noticing a brake fault and a blown tire.
EICAS saves the day
Reviewing The Aviation Herald, the report was that an Air Canada Boeing 787-9 in C-FGDZ on Flight AC-856 from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Mumbai (India) took off from LHR with the tower reporting smoke during take-off. At the identical time, the cockpit was informed of two flat tires. How could the cockpit know of two flat tires after take-off?
Photo: Tom Boon | Easy Flying
Namely, a thing called EICAS or Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System. This method is created by aircraft sensors feeding right into a computer to send push notifications to the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner cockpit’s look-down multi-function displays of aircraft performance, as pictured below. As an illustration, EICAS can notify if the landing gear is up or down, plus tire temperatures and pressures, based on Flying the Boeing 787 by Gib Vogel.
Photo: Peter Krocka | Shutterstock
The Air Canada 787-9 pilots decided of their wisdom to return to LHR. Although the 787-9 tires have a fuse plug to stop an explosion, the control tower reported smoke. Moreover, each Boeing 787 may need ten tires, with two on the front landing gear, but On this incident, EICAS showed a fault on brake five plus zero pressure within the fifth tire on the principal landing gear.
Protected return to switch two tires
In line with The Aviation Herald’s report, even with ten tires – 4 on each of the 2 principal landing gear assemblies – the pilots returned to LHR after burning off fuel to get to a protected landing weight.
After landing, based on the above tweet and The Aviation Herald, emergency vehicles met the 787-9 for a pre-gate emergency inspection. The energetic runway was also checked for debris attributable to foreign object debris (FOD) risk.
Ultimately, the 787-9 landing gear was inspected by maintainers the next 24 hours. In line with The Aviation Herald,
Maintenance found #5 wheel assembly damaged with burst tire and correlating faults to anti skid 5, auto brake and brake #5. Wheels #5 and #6 were replaced.
It appears the Air Canada pilots made the precise call to bring back C-FGDZ on January 9. A check of Flightradar24 shows that C-FGDZ has returned to flying long-haul routes for Air Canada.
About C-FGDZ, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Below is a fast table of facts about Air Canada’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner C-FGDZ as pictured in the highest photo and from ch-aviation:
Age |
7.89 years |
Order Date |
April 23, 2007 |
First Flight |
March 11, 2016 |
Delivery Date |
March 31, 2016 |
Factory Location |
Charleston, South Carolina |
Maximum Take-Off Weight |
252,650 kg / 556,998 lb |
Range |
7,635 nmi (14,140 km; 8,786 mi) |
Below is a table of C-FGDZ’s seating arrangements, again based on ch-aviation:
Economy |
247 |
Premium Economy |
21 |
Business |
30 |
Total Passenger Capability |
298 |
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