I don’t know what exactly happened here, but this doesn’t look good…
In this post:
United’s rough landing leads to Orlando ground stop
This incident happened today, Sunday, January 18, 2026, shortly after 12:30PM. It involves United Airlines flight UA2323, operating from Chicago (ORD) to Orlando (MCO) with a two-year-old Airbus A321neo with the registration code N14502.
The 2hr19min flight was routine until the landing, and I think the video shared by JonNYC tells you everything you need to know.
The weather conditions seemingly weren’t great, and the plane had a completely botched landing, which caused one of the nose wheels to separate from the aircraft.
Based on the video footage, the landing initially looked relatively standard, with the left rear wheels touching down before the right rear wheels. However, the plane then bounced violently to the right, as the left rear wheels went back into the air, and then the forward wheels touched down. One of the forward wheels eventually just separated from the aircraft, and the plane came to a stop on the runway.
This caused the airport to have a ground stop, as all operations had to be halted. Obviously this is a peak travel period in Orlando, so it’s not the ideal time for something like this to happen. As you’d expect, the plane was taken out of service, and won’t be flying for quite some time…
Unrelated, but is this video being filmed by pilots of another plane, or ops workers in a car? It looks to me like it’s filmed from a flight deck — if so, so much for not using phones for non-essential tasks during critical phases of flight. Or I guess in retrospect, maybe this did turn out to be “critical,” in terms of proving useful to investigators. Heh.
I wonder what exactly went wrong here
Winds were gusty at the time of this incident, but that doesn’t fully explain why something like this would happen. As mentioned above, the landing doesn’t look that unusual at first, but then a lot of weight is put on the rear right gear, and then the forward gear touches down before the rear left gear. So at that point, it’s not surprising that a wheel separated from the aircraft.
It’s sort of the opposite of the 2024 incident United had, where a Boeing 777 lost a wheel after taking off from San Francisco (SFO). In that case, it seemed to be more of a maintenance issue, rather than anything to do with the flying of the aircraft, or the weather conditions.
I am curious to see how long it takes United to repair this Airbus A321neo. Is it just as simple as replacing the wheel, or was there possibly some structural damage?
Bottom line
A United Airlines Airbus A321neo had a mighty rough landing in Orlando, which caused the plane to lose a wheel. While we know it was windy at the time of the incident, that doesn’t fully explain what happened. Fortunately no one was hurt and the plane came to a stop safely, but it did cause a ground stop, leading to operational issues.
What do you make of this A321neo landing in Orlando?
In the 1990s I was on a Continental Lite DC9 taking off from Columbia, SC. I was reading as we made our took off run, but looked up when there was loud murmuring from other passengers. I looked out the window just in time to see a wheel rolling and then bouncing into the infield. Kinda' surreal. The pilot spoke over the intercom to tell us, "Yes, that was one of our right side main...
In the 1990s I was on a Continental Lite DC9 taking off from Columbia, SC. I was reading as we made our took off run, but looked up when there was loud murmuring from other passengers. I looked out the window just in time to see a wheel rolling and then bouncing into the infield. Kinda' surreal. The pilot spoke over the intercom to tell us, "Yes, that was one of our right side main gear wheels you saw departing the aircraft, but there are two wheels per side and we think the other one is in place." We made a low pass over the tower and confirmed that the second wheel appeared ok, so we flew on to New Orleans. We made the gentlest landing I've ever experienced.
I live in Orlando and there was a nasty storm that blew through at this exact same time with some very intense wind gusts. Would not be surprised to see a report that wind gust impacted this landing attempt.
I saw the ground stop and knew Ben would come through w/ the reason.
That was just a bad landing. Any landing that puts that much pressure on the nose wheel is all wrong.
After AA's bad landing on the XLR at LAX, maybe a little refresher training is in order for the 321.
I congratulate you on a level-headed and seemingly accurate post
Wow two landing incidents just days apart with new A321 aircraft. What is going on with the Airbus A321?
You sure it's a pilot filming? Ops people film alot.
I think United had a screw loose.