Incident Involving a Tecnam P2006T at EPLL

Incident Overview and Investigation Scope On 4 October 2013, a training flight involving a Tecnam P2006T aircraft operated by Bartolini Air sp. z o.o. resulted in an incident at EPLL airport. The aircraft was piloted by a student pilot and an instructor. During the landing roll on runway 25, the pilot reported damage to the right main landing gear tire. The aircraft taxied off the runway under its own power and stopped on taxiway Bravo, where the crew inspected the landing gear and requested assistance to tow the aircraft to the Bartolini Air hangar. ## Findings and Contributing Factors Following the incident, the airport fire service inspected the runway and found a severed tire valve. Similar tire-related incidents were subsequently reported on other Tecnam P2006T aircraft, with case numbers 139/14, 852/14, 2009/14, 194/15, and 1548/15. Bartolini Air's Safety Management System team determined that the frequency of these incidents was one per 713.5 flight hours and one per 1,149 operations, which was considered acceptable for training flights. However, the incidents were investigated collectively due to the lack of a visible cause for the tire failures. ## Root Cause and Corrective Actions Mechanics repairing the tires observed compressed rubber powder balls inside the tires, which explained the abrasion at the inner tube-tire interface, leading to weakened inner tube sidewalls. The issue was identified as a material problem originating from the tire and its internal structure. The operator decided to progressively replace the tires and inner tubes on the Tecnam P2006T fleet with products from a different manufacturer of higher quality. Over the following five months (September 2015 to March 2016), only one unexplained tire pressure loss was recorded, reducing the frequency to one per 525 flight hours and one per 1,233 operations. Monitoring of the phenomenon continues.