A wheel came off a United Airlines aircraft as it was taking off… again.
United 757 wheel falls off after takeoff from LAX
This incident happened on Monday, July 8, 2024, and involves United Airlines flight UA1001, scheduled to operate from Los Angeles (LAX) to Denver (DEN). The flight was operated by a 30-year-old Boeing 757-200 with the registration code N14107.
The jet had 181 people onboard, including 174 passengers and seven crew members. The aircraft was scheduled to depart at 7AM local time, and ended up taking off at 7:16AM, from runway 25R.
As soon as the aircraft became airborne, pilots of other aircraft on taxiways reported that they noticed that one of the 757’s wheels flew off as the aircraft rotated. The wheel ended up going quite a distance, and ultimately badly damaged a parked car.
The decision was made for the flight to continue to Denver, rather than return to Los Angeles. That seems sensible enough, since it doesn’t matter where the aircraft lands one wheel “down,” so you might as well get passengers to their destination.
So as the aircraft approached Denver, the pilots declared an emergency, and passengers were told to brace for landing. After a 1hr55min flight, the plane ended up landing on runway 34L. The aircraft vacated the runway on its own, and it then took about 30 minutes for the plane to be towed to the apron.
Below you can see an excellent VASAviation recreation of what happened, including ATC audio.
Below you can see video of the wheel on the loose.
This is the second such incident in a matter of months
If the concept of a United aircraft losing a wheel on takeoff sounds familiar, it’s for good reason. Almost four months ago to the day, a United Boeing 777 departing San Francisco (SFO) lost a wheel in a nearly identical incident. The wheel went “flying” shortly after takeoff, other pilots had to report what happened, and a car was hit.
While aviation incidents happen all the time, it’s pretty rare to see wheels coming off planes. That incident that happened several months ago was one of several things that caused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to increase oversight of United.
It definitely does seem like United has more safety incidents than other airlines do. I think that partly comes down to the airline having quite an old fleet. Old planes are of course safe, but they’re also more likely to have maintenance issues. At the same time, that can’t be the only explanation, since Delta’s fleet isn’t exactly young, either, yet Delta doesn’t have wheels falling off of planes.
So one wonders what the other factors at play are. United is growing faster than American and Delta, so is maintenance taking a hit? Or is this all just a coincidence?
Bottom line
A United Airlines Boeing 757 lost a wheel after taking off from LAX. The jet continued to its destination, where it landed safely, and was then towed to the gate. Aircraft losing wheels is quite uncommon, but what makes this strange is that United had a similar incident several months ago, causing the FAA to increase oversight of the airline.
What do you make of this United 757 wheel incident?
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