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reply to earlier posts. The front seater was definately flying the plane because F/A-18 Hornets DO NOT have flight controls in the back seat. The GIB is a weapons system operator, not a pilot. The forward visibility from the back seat is nonexistent. Even if he had flight controls, he wouldn't be flying a landing except in some dire emergency. 2nd. The tires DID NOT blow out from a too hard landing. Think about it a second. This is a Navy plane that normally lands (semi-controlled crash) on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier. The plane is at flying speed, a foot or two in the air when the hook catches the arresting cable and SLAMS the plane down on the deck. The tires and struts are designed to take that kind of punishment. As long as the pilot didn't cram the gear struts up into the fuselage, he didn't land it too hard.
It is almost certainly a malfunction of the tire, wheel or braking system. "He did a complete 360 spin on landing." When your nose is pointed back down the runway towards the approach end, you only did a 180 degree turn. A 360 would mean that he was pointed in the initial direction again.

Apparently this wasn't the only tire blowout:

Posted by Leezure, Post #168, "Superhornet Mishap at Pensacola Today - ARC Air Discussion Forums", http://s102164210.onlinehome.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=103388
Great series of photos! I was there in support of the AAHF Cobra Demonstration team and can add two interesting points.
1. When we were on approach to runway 25 on Thursday afternoon (Army CV2 Caribou) we were told to follow the B1 bomber. As he landed we were told to change our approach to runway 19. After we landed we noticed the fire trucks and emergency response vehicles headed out to the B1 which had stopped on runway 25. Evidently they had blown two tires and exploded one wheel upon landing. The aircraft remained on the runway until sometime Friday night when it was towed to the static display section of the airfield.
Fast forward to Saturday's F18 incident...
2. As I was standing guard for the Huey rides (we were operating from a spot in front of the B1) the F18 blew his tire spun and ended up at our end of the flight line. As if on cue the B1 crew came out to get a better look and said "scratch them off the list of people that can give us a ration of S$@# for blowing a tire".
This was followed by a number of comments regarding the condition of Navy runways and a few good hearted high fives. All was said in good fun as they had been the unfortunate star of the show up until that moment.
Anyway, thanks for the pictures. Keep up the good work!

Wow! On this Thanksgiving season one of the many things we can be thankful for is that these accidents caused no (zero) casualties or injuries. (And a ping to Shimmer128 who's fond of the B-1 bomber.)