Exploded Delta Boeing plane tire reveals the dangers of the aircraft

A tire that exploded on a Delta Air Lines (DAL)Boeing 757 operated on Tuesday morning killed two workers and injured another in Atlanta. The tragic incident reminds us that airplanes are incredibly dangerous machines, and that their engines aren’t the only component capable of unleashing serious power.

A 1996 paper in the journal SAE Transactions explored how an airplane tire blowout can be huge. “A flat tire is like an exploding bomb,” he wrote. “The energy released by a tire blowout can be equated to dynamite.” (The deadly 2000 explosion of the supersonic Concorde operated by Air France was partially caused by a tire blowout; fragments hit the fuel tank, which leaked and engulfed the plane in flames before it crashed.)

To “quantify tire burst phenomena,” scientists intentionally explored the tires of an F-16 fighter jet and a B-52 bomber. The last explosion released 1 million foot-pounds of force, or two sticks of dynamite. (A B-52 has about twice the maximum takeoff weight of a 757.) The scientists detailed the carnage that befell the test chamber they had installed:

The damage included chipping paint off the wall of the test cell and spreading it throughout the test cell. Other paint chips and dust were found on floors and tables around the large (landing gear development facility). The video camera recording the test, along with its mounting box, were blown off the wall of the test cell. A high-intensity light 15 meters away from the tire was extinguished. On the second floor, about 45 feet along the building, picture frames fell from the walls. A previously cracked window was blown out of the building. The wooden frame around a window air conditioner, about 240 meters away, was torn down and a clock fell from the wall.

If testing personnel were not “required to wear ear protection and remain outside the test cell, a minimum of 20 feet from the tire, with solid metal doors and a dynamometer cart between the tire and themselves” , the scientists noted. , “could have sustained significant injuries.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Delta had not yet released the identities of the workers killed in the incident or said what caused the explosion.