In the latest in a series of reputational disasters for the manufacturer, another aviation safety event involving a Boeing plane has taken place, this time the loss of a wheel on take-off.
Wheel dropped out of sky
United Airlines flight UA35 to Osaka, Japan from San Francisco International took off just before 11.30 am on 7 March 2024, with 249 people aboard. But footage captured by onlookers during its ascent showed the aircraft’s left maingear aft inner wheelcoming loose and dropping out of the sky.
The wheel fell onto an employee car park, causing damage to a number of vehicles, including a silver Toyota Corolla. No one was injured.
We will work with customers as well as with the owners of the damaged vehicles in SFO to ensure their needs are addressed.
United Airlines
Diversion to LA
The plane meanwhile diverted to Los Angeles where emergency response vehicle were standing by. It landed safely with no harm to the 235 passengers or crew, though the runway was temporarily closed to check for debris. United Airlines thanked the crew and ground staff for their “professionalism”.
“We’re also grateful to our teams on the ground who were waiting with a tug to move the aircraft soon after it landed and to our teams in the airport who assisted customers upon their arrival,” the carrier said.
The missing wheel of the Boeing 777-222(ER) plane (N226UA) has damaged multiple cars at SFO.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) March 7, 2024
🎥@Julian61865944 https://t.co/6Zyv0LEQWw pic.twitter.com/X2o6LHwBEM
Designed to land safely
Miminising the incident, the airline noted, “The 777-200 has six tyres on each of its two main landing gear struts. The aircraft is designed to land safely with missing or damaged tyres.”
Aviation experts have widely agreed that, although losing a wheel is rare, it happens from time to time and is usually uneventful as it is something pilots and plane manufacturers are prepared for. Nonetheless, the Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation , according to FAA spokesperson Tony Molinaro.
Single points of failure?
Alan Price, a former Delta Air Lines pilot told the Associated Press, “In aviation, we never want to have single points of failure if they can be avoided, and this is a case in point.”
Other headline grabbing recent incidents dogging Boeing and leading to FAA interventions include the loss of a nose wheel from a Boeing 757 plane on a runway in Atlanta and the grounding of the US fleet of Boeing Max 9s after a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight mid-air causing depressurisation, an emergency descent and landing.
