Flightglobal:

A proposed AD set to be published tomorrow suggests that under-inflated tires may have initiated the chain of events that led to the fatal rejected takeoff crash of a Learjet 60 crash in September 2008, killing four of the six onboard...

Author: John Croft

Date: 28 May 2009

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Can any rated Learjet pilots explain how tire failure can "result" in thrust reverser failure as stated in the article?

 I think that a piece of the tire rubber could cause the reverse / engine failure.

The AD wasn't released.

 

I don't think that it would need actual damage to the thrust reverser for them not to deploy. Thrust Reverser actuation systems are designed to not deploy unless everything in the system is working OK. In other words, system and return hydraulic pressures need to be OK, there can be no mechanical failures of any of the system components and no electrical systems failures (including the weight on wheels sensors) for a Thrust Reverser to deploy. The reason for this is a thrust reverser deployment in flight is almost always unrecoverable, whereas a failure to deploy on the ground is more generally a survivable event. I say this just for background info.

I don't know how the lear thrust reverse system actually works, but I agree.

The whole system is designed to avoid the thrust reverse to be deployed in-flight.

rubber pieces from the tire can take out the squat switch on the gear resulting in the aircraft entering "air mode" triggering the TRs to autostow. If this happens the fadec will initially bring the engines engines to idle thrust during the autostow process, but if the pilot does not bring the TR piggybacks back to stow, then you will get full take off thrust (even though the trust levers themselves are at idle) once the autostow is complete.