(UPDATED at 1:08 p.m. MDT February 11, 2019)
A DC-10 very large air tanker was damaged when a tire failed upon landing at the Carriel Sur airport in Concepción, Chile Friday November 8. The tread separated on a main landing gear tire and damaged an inboard flap. John E. Gould, President of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, said the crew immediately began repairing the flap and that work will be completed Monday afternoon.
When tires on a race car or aircraft disintegrate at high speed as shown in the photo, chunks of rubber flying off the tire can damage sheet metal and other components.
Very roughly translated news reports indicate that the aircraft completed either four sorties or four drops on its first day of operations in Chile before the tire failed. T-910 departed from San Bernardino, California on February 6, arrived in Chile the following day, and went to work dropping on wildfires February 8.
Mr. Gould said a second DC-10, Tanker 914 has been ordered and is en route, expected to arrive in Santiago, Chile Monday afternoon. It is not necessarily to replace T-910; CONAF, the contracting organization, wanted a total of two very large air tankers under contract.
The video below shows both a Russian IL-76 and the DC-10 making drops. It is possible that a water enhancing chemical has been added to the water to increase its effectiveness in suppressing the wildfires. The DC-10 can carry up to 9,400 gallons. The IL-76 footage may be from 2017.
[URGENTE]🔥🔥#TenTanker sufre lamentable incidente en el DC-10 que lo dejará un par de días fuera de vuelo y sin poder extinguir #incendios #forestales en la #Araucanía y #BioBio 🔥🔥🛫🛫 #10tanker pic.twitter.com/d9XIFfPKVv
— Actualidad Chile (@ActualidadChil1) February 9, 2019
The article has been edited to correct the date the DC-10 first arrived in Chile.
one last thing…. tanker 910 is on route to Puerto Montt (SCTE) right now per ifis info…. should be landing there at 2216 local time…. Cheers!