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C

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Landing on two flat main 
tires (empty airplane).
 

On Dec.13, 1972 we were doing pilot training 
in Hawaii with ONA’s DC-8-61 (N867) aircraft. 

We took-off from Honolulu airport and flew to 
Hilo airport on the big island to do our training, 
because they have much less traffic than Honolulu 
airport does. 

On our last take-off from Hilo and heading back 
to Honolulu, Hilo Tower called us and said they 
found pieces of rubber tires on their runway. 

What happens is when the brakes get too hot it 
causes fuse plugs in the wheels to melt, so the 
tires can deflate without exploding. 

So we told Honolulu Tower we probably have some 
flat tires that we are landing on and we would 
like the emergency equipment standing by when we 
land. Sure enough, as soon as we touched down we 
heard two main tires blow, but the Captain kept 
the aircraft straight in the middle of the runway 
till stopped. 

After we stopped he told me to go back to the 
forward left main cabin door and look out to see 
how bad the left main gear fire was, I told him 
there was only hot burning ambers and no big flames. 

All four main tires, wheels and most of their brakes 
were gone. As we were all observing the aircraft 
damage, this high-ranking military Officer drives up 
and says to us, you have to get this aircraft off 
my runway right away. 

We told him it wasn’t going anywhere till it had some 
new tires and wheels installed and who knew how long 
before that would be.  

They had to fly in a new left inboard flap. Took four 
days to get the aircraft repaired and ready to fly 
again.