United Airlines plane’s wheel falls off during take-off; flight makes emergency landing
A Boeing 777 jet made an emergency landing after its wheel fell off into a parking just after take-off. The Japan-bound plane with 249 people on board was redirected to Los Angeles.
Following the incident, a video of the wheel dropping moments after the United Airlines plane took off from San Francisco International Airport into a parking lot used by airport employees is going viral over the internet.
According to United Airlines, the Boeing 777 has six wheels on each of its main landing struts and can land safely even if any wheel is missing or damaged.
This incident comes amidst Boeing facing a number of quality control issues. Earlier, a door-sized panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew off the fuselage after the jet took off in Portland, Oregon. This incident triggered a 19-day grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 9s.
Later, three Boeing 737 Max 9 planes that belong to Indonesia’s budget airline Lion Air have been allowed to resumed flying after a temporary grounding.
Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati told reporters that following inspections, it was found that the three Boeing 737 Max 9 planes operating under Lion Air apparently had different configurations with the Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, which suffered an in-flight blowout earlier this month, reports Xinhua news agency.
In late 2018 and early 2019, two of its aircraft were lost in near identical incidents, off the coast of Indonesia and outside the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
A total of 346 people were killed in both the crashes which were caused by flawed flight control software, which ultimately forced the planes into catastrophic dives, despite the best efforts of the pilots.
🚨 #BREAKING: A United Airlines Boeing 777 has lost a wheel while taking off San Francisco
Several cars have been CRUSHED by the falling wheel
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH BOEING AND THE AIRLINES? pic.twitter.com/zu7s5YJixg
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 7, 2024
Ms Kalinga