Scary footage captures moment plane tyre drops from aircraft during takeoff

A Japan-bound United Airlines flight was forced to divert to Los Angeles International Airport when the plane lost a tyre after taking off in San Francisco Thursday, the airline confirmed to the New York Post.

The falling landing gear from United Flight 35 damaged several cars in the parking lot of San Francisco International Airport after the Boeing 777-20 took off around 11:30AM, according to the airline and airport officials.

Shocking footage shows the plane lose one of its six tyres on the left side as it ascended into the air.
 

The Boeing 777-200 plane, which was heading to Osaka with 235 passengers, 10 flight attendants and four pilots on board, safely landed at LAX, United Airlines confirmed to The Post.

“We are working to arrange a new aircraft to continue this trip for our customers,” a spokesperson said.

The tyre debris landed in an employee parking lot at the San Francisco airport, “causing damage to several vehicles,” a spokesperson told The Post.

 

“There were no injuries. The runway was briefly closed to clear debris, but has since reopened,” they added.

A video posted online from the airport showed a vehicle with its back end smashed and a fence damaged in the aftermath.
 

The plane is designed to land without a problem when tyres are either missing or damaged, the airline said.

It was the third time this week that a Boeing plane used by United faced mid-air problems.

One of the engines on a Boeing 737-900 used by the airline caught fire minutes into a flight in Texas on Monday. United Airlines Flight 1118 immediately returned to George H. Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport.

 

Another United flight travelling from Honolulu to San Francisco dealt with an engine failure over the Pacific Ocean on Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing records. The Boeing 575-300 thankfully landed safely at its destination an hour after the failure was discovered.

Boeing has dealt with an onslaught of issues that began when a door plug flew away mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines flight in January. A string of mishaps along the production process were later unearthed during inspections of Boeing’s Max 9 jets.

An FAA expert panel previously ripped Boeing’s “lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organisation” in February.

With Post wires

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission