An American Airlines jet bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, blew two tires while taxiing for departure at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, forcing passengers to deplane onto the tarmac using stairs before being bused to the terminal. No injuries were reported aboard Flight 3280, but the incident marks the fourth tire-blowout scare at O'Hare in roughly two weeks.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the tire failure happened as Flight 3280 taxied for takeoff, and the pilot of a following aircraft noticed the plane's tires were losing tread and alerted air traffic control, which then radioed the American Airlines pilots about the problem, as reported by CBS News Chicago. The FAA has launched investigations into each of the plane tire incidents at the airport, according to the outlet's report. CBS News Chicago said it reached out to both American Airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation for comment, but as of publication neither had provided further information.
A Two-Week Pattern at O'Hare
Wednesday's incident is the latest in a string of tire failures that have rattled O'Hare's airfield since mid-August. The station's report notes that a different American Airlines plane popped tires while landing at O'Hare on August 17, and that a United Airlines plane suffered the same problem landing at the airport that same day. Just days earlier, on August 13, a United Airlines flight headed to Phoenix aborted its takeoff at O'Hare after blowing a tire while taxiing for departure, an incident previously covered by Hoodline.
Together, those four episodes have hit both of O'Hare's major hub carriers across both landing and taxiing phases, an unusual clustering that has drawn scrutiny from aviation watchers, per the same account from CBS News Chicago. The pattern extended beyond O'Hare as well: on August 3, a Southwest Airlines flight lost pressure in both nose gear tires while landing at Chicago Midway International Airport, according to The Independent.
Why Federal Investigators Aren't Opening a Full Probe
Despite the FAA's inquiries into each incident, the string of tire failures does not trigger the kind of full-scale federal accident investigation many travelers might expect. Under National Transportation Safety Board criteria, damage limited strictly to landing gear, wheels, or tires does not legally count as “substantial damage,” meaning oversight instead falls to the FAA and individual airline maintenance teams.
Federal rules do require airports to act quickly once a blowout happens. FAA Advisory Circular 150/5210-24A mandates that commercial airports run Foreign Object Debris management programs, including immediate runway sweeps and physical inspections to clear rubber fragments before reopening lanes to traffic — a big part of why these incidents typically close runways for a stretch afterward.
What Causes Tires To Fail on the Runway
Commercial airliner tires are built to withstand extreme stress. Federal airworthiness standards require tires mounted on braked wheels to be inflated with dry nitrogen or inert gas to keep oxygen volume below 5%, a safeguard meant to prevent internal chemical explosions caused by extreme brake heat. Even so, the FAA's Safety Briefing publication has identified improper inflation — particularly underinflation — as the leading cause of premature tire failure, since it creates excessive sidewall flex, heat buildup, and casing degradation that can trigger tread separation or blowouts.
The failures are also unfolding against a backdrop of record air traffic at O'Hare. City of Chicago data shows the airport recorded 485,000 total flight operations in the first seven months of 2025 alone, a 10.9% year-over-year surge during a record-setting travel period, underscoring the heavy daily burden placed on the airfield's runways and taxiways.
Not the First Time for American Airlines at O'Hare
This is not the first time an American Airlines jet has rolled onto O'Hare's tarmac on damaged tires this year. In May, American Airlines Flight 791, arriving from Miami, landed with flat tires at O'Hare and stranded passengers on the airfield for nearly two hours before portable stairs and shuttle buses were deployed, as Hoodline reported at the time in a piece headlined Bumpy Touchdown Leaves Jet on Flats.
Whether the recent cluster points to a shared cause — such as pavement conditions or debris on O'Hare's runways — or simply reflects a statistical coincidence amid a record-breaking summer of air travel remains an open question. For now, federal investigators are examining each incident individually, while American Airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation have yet to offer further explanation.
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