Originally Posted by
MrDK
Question for the fine pilots on this board.
In the case of DL1457 that blew a tire at take off from ATL it circled long enough to burn/dump fuel for a safer landing.
Why not burn the fuel flying to Portland?
Aside from ATL having more (an perhaps longer runways) what is the reason not to complete the flight?
After all, landing with a blown tire statistically (and to the credit of great pilots) is pretty uneventful, and in the event of problems one place is as bad as the other.
In addition to the points made by others:
1. You normally would not want to retract landing gear after a tire failure -- the old saying goes, "A down gear is a happy gear"
2. You normally would not want to retract the flaps after a tire failure since some of the rubber could have been thrown into the flap mechanism, causing potential damage or jamming, and finally,
3. Due to the above stated reasons, they would not have had sufficient fuel anyway for a flight from ATL to Portland with gear and flaps extended.
I don't know what flap setting they landed with, but I suspect they extended the flaps incrementally to minimize control issues in the event that any flaps were damaged or jammed.