Yesterday a Japan-bound United Airlines Boeing 777 had to divert because it lost a wheel after takeoff. That’s something you don’t see every day…
United 777 wheel falls off after takeoff from SFO
This incident happened on Thursday, March 7, 2024, and involves United Airlines flight UA35, scheduled to fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Osaka Kansai (KIX). The flight was operated by a 22-year-old Boeing 777-200ER with the registration code N226UA.
The jet departed on schedule, and took off at 11:22AM. However, just seconds after takeoff, while the gear was being retracted, one of the six wheels on the back left landing gear fell off.
It’s interesting how this situation evolved:
- The United pilots didn’t realize that they had lost one of the wheels on takeoff, since there was no indication in the cockpit of anything being wrong, so they continued their departure as planned
- Thanks to some observers on the ground, air traffic controllers noted that an aircraft lost a wheel on departure, though at first they weren’t sure which plane lost a wheel; as a result, runways at the airport were closed, so that inspections could be performed
- Only well into the climb did an air traffic controller let the United pilots know that they may have lost a wheel on takeoff, but they weren’t positive
- The United pilots were obviously at first shocked and confused by the information, and then got in touch with the company, as there were no onboard indications of any issue
- 13 minutes after the incident, the use of runways 1L and 1R resumed, and then 25 minutes after the incident, the use of runways 28L and 28R resumed
- Eventually the pilots of the United 777 made the decision to divert to Los Angeles (LAX), declaring a “PAN” (expressing urgency, but not an immediate danger); the plane landed there on runway 25L around 1hr55min after departure, came to a stop, and was then towed off the runway by a tug, a bit over 10 minutes later
- Beyond the missing wheel, there was no additional damage to the aircraft
Below you can see the flight path for this flight, given that it diverted. It’s not entirely clear why the plane diverted to LAX rather than to SFO, but I’m sure there’s a reason. It’s possible they had to burn fuel and fly for some amount of time anyway, it’s possible that it was decided that the operational impact would be smallest there, it’s possible United had a spare aircraft there for passengers to minimize the disruption, etc.
Below you can see the video of this United 777’s takeoff, where it loses its wheel.
VASAviation also has a great video with the air traffic control audio from the incident.
An investigation is now being performed into what caused this. While Boeing has had its fair share of problems lately, I wouldn’t necessarily assume this is some awful reflection of the problems at the aircraft manufacturer. This 777 (and many others like it) have been flying for decades, and I don’t ever recall this happening before.
The United 777’s wheel caused damage on the ground
Of course it’s great that the plane landed safely, and that no one onboard was injured. Then again, that’s something that you’d expect, as one of 14 wheels falling off shouldn’t pose a risk to passengers.
The much bigger risk here was to people on the ground. Boeing 777s are heavy jets, and each wheel has dimensions of 52 inches by 21 inches, and weighs 265 pounds. That’s certainly not something you want falling on you from hundreds of feet up.
Since the wheel fell off while the gear was being retracted, this happened once the plane had already passed the end of the runway. The wheel ended up falling in an airport parking lot. The bad news is that it caused significant damage to a couple of cars. The good news is that the cars were unoccupied, so no one was injured. Cars can easily be replaced, while life can’t, so that’s definitely the silver lining here.
Someone is definitely going to be having an interesting conversation with their insurance company, though “Yum, so, umm, my car was hit by an airplane wheel.”
Bottom line
A United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a wheel after taking off from SFO. This is quite an unusual incident, since the pilots didn’t realize this happened at the time, and only became aware of it based on eyewitness accounts from the ground, which were passed on to air traffic controllers. The plane ended up diverting to LAX, where it landed safely just under two hours after departure.
What do you make of this United 777 wheel incident?
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