Quicksand Fans

From AvHerald:

A British Airways Airbus A380-800, registration G-XLEB performing flight BA-32 from Hong Kong (China) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), was climbing out of Hong Kong close to reaching the top of climb when the crew received a tyre pressure indication. The crew decided to continue the flight to London and requested a tow tug to be available for landing in case the aircraft would not be able to taxi on its own. The aircraft landed safely on Heathrow's runway 09L and taxied to the gate.

The aft right outboard body tyre caused a lot of head scratching trying to explain how the stunning square shape of the damaged tyre came together (editorial note: the original of the photo does not exhibit any indication of photoshopping).


Ok, you got me. Any ideas?

it looks like it was filled with air rather than nitrogen, air will shrink and expand with temperature changes which nitrogen does not do

That's the steerable set of wheels on the truck, so it might have gotten canted a bit off when the gear retracted. Can't explain the odd shape, though it looks like there's some kind of rigid or semi-rigid cross-ribs in the tire.