Video shows a United Airlines flight taking off from San Francisco International Airport and losing a wheel shortly after. It can be seen hurtling towards the ground as the plane flies off without it
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Terrifying moment wheel ‘falls off’ Boeing plane mid-take off
This is the moment a wheel fell off of a Boeing aircraft mid-take off.
Video shows a United Airlines flight taking off from San Francisco International Airport and losing a wheel shortly after. It can be seen hurtling towards the ground as the plane flies off without it.
“The wheel has been recovered in Los Angeles, and we are investigating what caused this event,” United said in a statement on Monday. It was the second such incident for the airline this year.
According to CNN pilots of an Allegiant flight bound for Tulsa, Oklahoma, saw the wayward wheel as it bounced across runways and taxiways at Los Angeles Airport. They radioed: “A tire came off that 75 that took off, we saw it rolling down past bravo seven, bravo eight.”
Other pilots said the tire crossed a parallel runway before a further aviator radioed to say that the wheel had finally stopped near the airport’s southwest corner, about three-quarters of a mile from where it was first seen rolling away. The aircraft involved was nearly 30-years-old, according to FlightRadar24 data, and was carrying 174 passengers and seven crew members. Boeing ended production of the 757 model in 2004.
One of the smaller wheels on the aircraft weighs around 70k, which is the same as an average sized British person.
It is not the first incident involving Boeing aircraft and disconnected wheels this year.
This March a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 jet headed for Japan also lost a tire following takeoff from San Francisco. The aircraft landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport. The wheel ended up landing on a car in an airport employee parking lot, smashing a car window. Happily no one was hurt.
The same month a flight carrying 167 passengers made an emergency landing in Houston after flames burst out of the engine of a Boeing 737-900 en-route from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida. It has been a tough year for Boeing following a series of high profile incidents such as this.
One of the two door plugs on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 flew off the plane in mid-flight on January 5. Passengers and investigators have described a violent decompression as air rushed out of the pressurized cabin at 16,000 feet over Oregon. The plane made an emergency landing with a hole in its side, and no serious injuries were reported. On a mostly full plane, no one was sitting in the two seats nearest the panel that blew out.
The FAA decided to ground all Max 9s with door plugs instead of regular doors in the back of the cabin as a result. After that, online travel agent Kayak added filters to let users exclude flights that use Boeing’s 737 Max planes. The door incident led to a surge of people trying to avoid flying on the airline, the Guardian reports.
Boeing and United Airlines have been contacted for comment.
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