AA3023 incident at KDEN - third departure runway ends with rejected takeoff and evacuation

General Discussion Real World Aviation
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I happened to witness this yesterday as a passenger on another flight waiting for takeoff from KDEN. I was monitoring FlightAware and saw some shifting traffic patterns…happened to notice this other departing flight AA3023 that had taxied to RWY 08, then to RWY 17L, and was now waiting for takeoff at a third location for RWY 34L (see first attached screenshot image).

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Suddenly there were lots of emergency vehicles headed up from the south onto RWY 34L… Turns out that the same AA3023 flight had aborted and stopped halfway down the runway (second screen shot). My departing flight and others in line were quickly redirected south to RWY 25. During our takeoff I did catch a quick look at the incident AA aircraft still on RWY 34L. It was still pointed forward but left of centerline with slides deployed and of course surrounded by flashing lights.

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After my flight landed, found this reddit thread with a first-hand passenger account saying that a tire blew on takeoff roll, pilot stopped the plane, then smoke or fire on main gear resulted in an evacuation. There is also a video posted online taken during the evacuation where the left main gear appears completely flat and/or melted. https://www.reddit.com/r/flightradar24/comments/1ma432r/comment/n5cdgn1/

The first obvious question is could the very long taxi between multiple runway assignments have contributed to a tire failure during takeoff? Another question is why was this flight redirected away from the initial RWY 08 in the first place, which is frequently used for KDEN departures, when RWY 08 appears to continue to be used for departures after their redirection, as seen in first screenshot? Wonder if anyone here has access to the KDEN TWR audio of this incident for more insight.

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  1. An extended taxi in hot conditions can definitely heat the tires up enough to cause a problem, especially if combined with faster taxi speeds and excessive brake use in a heavy airplane. DEN, being high and hot, is a place this could happen.

We don’t at all know that any of this happened, though, so no reason to speculate on a cause here. A Max, even heavy, is certainly capable of being taxied all over Denver without causing a tire failure. Until hearing otherwise, I see no reason to assume the crew didn’t perform a normal taxi.

  1. Without even looking, I can pretty safely assume the runway changes were due to arrival and departure gates opening/closing for weather in the area. As thunderstorms grow and move, traffic flow in and out of the airport is continually adjusted by ATC, and different departure procedures are most traffic-efficient off different runways. If a flight has their departure changed on taxi out, that will often come with a runway change. A normal summer day in Denver in other words.
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