- The Boeing 777-200 took off and the wheel came loose seconds later, around 11.35 am
- Cars crashed below and plane was diverted to Los Angeles
- Boeing’s latest mishap after the Alaska Airlines explosion and engine explosion
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A 256-pound wheel fell off a passenger plane as it took off, crushing the cars where it landed after plummeting to the ground.
United Airlines Flight 35 It left San Francisco airport en route to Osaka in Japan and had barely left the runway when the wheel of the Boeing 777-200 came off.
The plane with 235 passengers and 14 crew diverted to Los Angeles Airport after it was alerted to a landing gear failure at 11:35 a.m. Thursday.
A 256-pound wheel fell off a passenger plane as it took off, crushing the cars where it landed after hitting the ground.
United Airlines Flight 35 left San Francisco airport bound for Osaka in Japan and was just off the runway when the Boeing 777-200’s wheel came off.
Several vehicles in the employee parking lot were severely damaged by a falling wheel that also destroyed a fence.
The plane landed safely at LAX around 1:20 p.m. without further incident and no injuries were reported on the ground.
‘The 777-200 has six tires on each of the two main landing gear struts. “The aircraft is designed to land safely with missing or damaged tires,” United said.
A new plane was prepared to take passengers to Japan from LAX.
The wheel fall was the latest mishap for a Boeing plane after repeated problems with its damaged 737 Max 8.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it was investigating a United Airlines flight last month that had its rudder pedals “stuck” during landing.
Several vehicles in the employee parking lot were severely damaged by a falling wheel that also destroyed a fence.
A preliminary report on the Feb. 6 flight found that the plane arrived at the gate at Newark Airport without incident and that there were no injuries among the 161 passengers and crew.
Just one day earlier, one of the engines of another United Airlines 737 burst into flames mid-flight amid the terrifying fireball.
The flight from Houston to Fort Meyers, Florida, was forced to turn around after just 15 minutes. Nobody was hurt,
The cause of the explosion is not yet known, but the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
The plane model in the Houston incident was a Boeing 737-900, a plane similar to the Max fleet that was grounded in January after an exit door exploded during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon.
The FAA said Monday that its six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems found “multiple instances in which the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”
One of the engines of another United Airlines 737 burst into flames mid-flight amid the terrifying fireball.
Bolts appear to be missing from the door plug that exploded on a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5.
“The FAA identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control,” he said.
“The FAA is providing these details to the public as an update to the agency’s ongoing investigation.”
The administration announced it would continue to ground Boeing’s 171 planes and had halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX.
The news was a blow to the aircraft manufacturer, whose market value plummeted by $30 billion after the disaster.
Boeing’s stock price also plummeted 20 percent in the month following the explosion.
The manufacturer also faces the threat of legal action, including from passengers who say they were traumatized by their experience aboard the Alaska Airlines flight.