A 265-pound wheel fell off a United Airlines Boeing 777 after taking off from San Francisco International Airport on Thursday, smashing through a fence and into several cars in a nearby parking lot. The flight bound for Osaka, Japan diverted to Los Angeles and landed safely instead of taking a 12-hour trip across the Pacific Ocean. While statistically rare, this isn’t the first time that a major U.S. airline had a plane lose a wheel within in the last year.
United Airlines Flight 35 touched down without incident at LAX despite missing a wheel, KNTV reports. The Boeing 777-200ER is fitted with a dozen main landing gear tires split between two massive struts. Yes, planes of this size are designed to land with a wheel missing, but United understandably decided to play it safe. It was still within the realm of possibility that the Triple Seven could have lost more wheels. The diversion allowed the carrier to inspect the aircraft as soon as possible.
A Delta Airlines Boeing 757 lost a nose wheel in January while taxiing onto the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Luckily, the aircraft was still on the ground and didn’t attempt to take off. The 757 is a decades-old aircraft so its issue was likely unrelated to Boeing’s current quality control problems with the 737 Max.
Similarly, the United Boeing 777 entered service 22 years ago. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident to find the root cause, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the loose wheel raises questions about United’s maintenance.