Small moment of shock for the passengers on board a Boeing 777 in San Francisco: The United Airlines plane lost a wheel during takeoff. The plane with around 250 people on board, which was actually supposed to fly to Japan, landed a little later on Thursday (local time) easily in Los Angeles. United stressed that passenger planes are designed to land with missing or damaged tires. A Boeing 777 has six wheels on each side under the wings.
On the ground, the torn off wheel damaged several cars in a parking lot next to the airport, as seen on TV images. United said it would contact the owners and look into the matter.
Boeing is currently increasingly in the spotlight after a virtually new 737-9 Max aircraft lost a part of its fuselage while climbing after take-off at the beginning of January. According to initial investigations, the US accident investigation authority NTSB assumes that four fastening bolts were missing from the torn out fuselage fragment. However, problems with tires that are constantly exposed to extreme loads do occur from time to time on aircraft from various manufacturers and airlines. In January, a Boeing 757 lost a wheel shortly before takeoff from Atlanta and in February an Airbus A319 had to land in Brazil with a missing tire.
