Michelin and the FAA Safety Program (FAAST) have partnered to offer pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians a free online tire maintenance course titled The Impact of Tire Maintenance on Aircraft Safety. “Tire maintenance is often overlooked in aviation; this course will help reinforce this important part of aviation safety,” said Brad Beall, Michelin Aircraft Tire zone director for North and South America.

Keat Pruszenski, a manager of customer support engineering at Michelin, developed the course after the crash of a Learjet 60 at Columbia regional airport helped drive home the importance of tire maintenance and foreign object debris removal.

“The cause of the crash was found to be under-inflated tires; it was a preventable accident,” Pruszenski told AIN.

Pruszenski developed the program to help educate pilots and maintenance technicians about the importance of maintaining proper tire pressure and presented it at the 2010 NBAA conference. It has since been provided in person at several other smaller regional events and is now available online.