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Passenger aircraft tires are physically inspected by the cockpit crew member or technician after each landing or before take-off, that the tire may have been cut or punctured as it may have hit something on the ground (FOD) while taxiing. If the tire needs to be replaced for any reason, the tire is lifted with a jack in the parking stand and the tire replacement is carried out less than half an hour (similar to changing a car tire).

Since airline companies are commercial enterprises and the time the aircraft will spend on the ground cause extra cost, can the tire replacement and passenger boarding/deboarding and/or cargo offloading/onloading operations be performed simultaneously?

What needs to be considered in order to replace the tire and perform the other mentioned operations safely at the same time?

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  • $\begingroup$ Cargo onloading offloading could be simultaneous during boarding or debording in particular when it concerns passengers luggage. However the maintenance team cannot not do any possibly invasive action during passengers boarding. Lifting is not allowed during passengers movement. $\endgroup$
    – user40476
    Jun 23, 2019 at 19:13

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I have never seen an airline (or the military) have a maintenance procedure where a tire can be changed with pax on board the aircraft. Normally, if the problem is found when pax are on the aircraft, they are asked to deplane, the maintenance is done and the pax are then boarded once more. The biggest reason is that pax moving inside the aircraft can cause the aircraft to move and the jack to tilt and cause the landing gear to hit the ground. Without a tire, that could be really bad news.

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I stood on the tarmac at Ben Gurion TLV/LLBG and watched them change a tire on an El Al 747 prior to departure. My dad and I were the last two to board and we were walking our dogs prior to putting them in their crates prior to being loaded for the flight to JFK. They got an extra long walk. The plane was full of people at the time. This was in 1984, so procedures may have changed since then. (Despite the incredibly high security that El Al has always maintained, I'd imagine security procedures wouldn't allow us out on the tarmac these days, either.)

Therefore, yes, changing a tire can happen while passengers are boarding. Whether it is Standard Operating Procedure now (or if it was even SOP back in 1984) I don't know, but I can vouch that it has happened at least once.

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    $\begingroup$ That was 35 years ago. I hope they have become more professional and safety conscious in the intervening time... $\endgroup$
    – Juan Jimenez
    Jun 25, 2019 at 8:31

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