A tire fell off the plane. She crushed cars in the airport parking lot

A United Airlines plane noticed a serious problem shortly after taking off. Suddenly, a tire detached from the plane's landing gear and fell onto the airport parking lot, crushing several cars. The plane's pilots decided to abort the flight from San Francisco to Osaka and make an emergency landing at the Los Angeles airport. This is not the first situation in recent months in which pilots were forced to land on disabled wheels.

The tire detached from the plane's landing gear

The incident occurred on March 7, 2024 during United Flight 35 from San Francisco International Airport to Osaka, Japan. At around 11:35 local time, a few seconds after the plane took off, a tire suddenly detached from the plane's landing gear. Part of the wheel fell on the cars in the parking lot, completely crushing the hood of one of them. Fortunately, no airport customers were injured. United said it intends to take into account the claims of the owners of the damaged vehicles, but did not provide details on possible compensation amounts. A passenger plane tire has a diameter of approximately 125 cm and weighs up to 130 kg.

Emergency landing in Los Angeles

There were 235 passengers and 14 crew members on board the Boeing 777 of the American United Airlines. When a tire on one of the six wheels on the left side of the landing gear fell off, the pilots decided to divert from course to Japan and make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. The passengers then waited for a new plane to be arranged for them and they continued their journey. Despite the decision to terminate the flight, United recalls that planes are designed to be able to land even if tires are missing or damaged. The case will be handled by the Federal Aviation Administration, which will investigate the cause of the tire detaching from the wheel shortly after the plane took off.