I observed the landing and noted that the aircraft pulled up pretty quickly and made a hard left hand turn to exit the runway at the exit point about half way down that leads to the parking area. I saw a puff of smoke and heard a bang, and as he taxied in then observed the tyre
As he parked the wheel froze and was dragged about 5 feet
This particular aircraft was the one I was due to fly home on. For some reason we had three crews at the airport at once, so naturally great interest was shown by them and us lot indoors
Engineering staff were on hand to swap the wheels
This poor bugger had to jack the wheel up using a hand jack, after getting it up he discovered there was not sufficient clearance to remove the wheels, so got some metal plates to elevate the jack and do it all again
A second Q300 arrived as this was unfolding, our crew hijacked that aircraft while repairs continued to minimise any further delays. Then the rain came, my heart went out to both of them as they worked in unpleasant conditions.
We boarded and had a somewhat uneventful flight home, all be it rough as guts given the strong northerly winds in Wellington today.
