Overseas National Airways Flight 4655, a McDonne11 Douglas DC-8-63, was a non-scheduled charter flight from Tampa, Florida, to Geneva, Switzerland, via Bangor, Maine, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. There were 251 passengers aboard the flight. The flight from Tampa to Bangor was routine. Flight 4655 departed the terminal about 00:15 local time and proceeded to runway 15. At 00:24, the local controller cleared the aircraft for takeoff. The captain stated that he heard a “loud, muffled sound” during the takeoff roll. In addition, there was a “slight jarring of the aircraft to the right.” The captain then rejected the takeoff and brought the aircraft to a stop on a taxiway adjacent to runway 15. Fire broke out in the area of the right main landing gear and severely damaged the right main landing gear system, the right wing, and the right side of the fuselage. Thirty-four passengers were injured, three of them seriously, as they evacuated the aircraft through the emergency escape system. Probable cause: “The undetected deflation of a right main landing gear tire as the aircraft was taxiing for takeoff. The additional loads imposed upon two other tires caused them to fail during the takeoff roll. Subsequently, the wheel assemblies were damaged. The fire was ignited by the friction between the metal wheels and the runway pavement.”