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.
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 same time, the cockpit was informed of two flat tires.
The Air Canada 787-9 pilots decided in their wisdom to return to LHR. Even though the 787-9 tires have a fuse plug to prevent an explosion, the control tower reported smoke. Additionally, each Boeing 787 might have ten tires, with two on the front landing gear, but In this incident, EICAS showed a fault on brake five plus zero pressure in the 5th tire on the main landing gear.
According to The Aviation Herald’s report, even with ten tires – four on each of the two main landing gear assemblies – the pilots returned to LHR after burning off fuel to get to a safe landing weight.
After landing, according to the above tweet and The Aviation Herald, emergency vehicles met the 787-9 for a pre-gate emergency inspection. The active runway was also checked for debris due to foreign object debris (FOD) risk.
In the end, the 787-9 landing gear was inspected by maintainers the following 24 hours. According to 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.
