After the hatch of the 737MAX fell off in the air, a Boeing 777 aircraft recently experienced tire loss during flight.
According to CCTV news, on March 7th local time, a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Osaka, Japan lost its tires during the flight and diverted to Los Angeles for an alternate 25 minutes after takeoff. The incident resulted in a brief closure of a runway at San Francisco International Airport, which later reopened.
San Francisco International Airport stated that the aircraft involved was a Boeing 777-200. Airport officials said that tires fell off the plane and onto the ground parking lot used by airport employees, causing damage to multiple cars.
In response to this matter, Interface News inquired with Boeing, and the relevant person in charge of Boeing stated, "It is recommended to contact the relevant airline." According to the response from United Airlines, there were a total of 249 people on the aircraft involved, including 235 passengers, 10 flight attendants, and 4 pilots. The incident has not yet reported any injuries to personnel.
The interface news was found through the Feichangzhun APP, and the involved flight was United Airlines Flight UA35. It was originally scheduled to depart from San Francisco at 11:05 and is expected to arrive at 15:52 local time. The actual departure time is 11:22. The aircraft type is a Boeing 777-200ER wide body aircraft with registration number N226UA, and the aircraft age is displayed as 22 years.
An experienced person posted on social media that the wheels of United Airlines Flight UA35, which he and his wife were taking off in the morning, fell off and took nearly two hours to make an alternate landing at Los Angeles LAX Airport. "The wheel fell off during takeoff, and about thirty minutes later, the captain broadcasted the truth that he had planned to return and land at San Francisco International Airport. However, the airport was too busy and there was another runway under maintenance, so he had to transfer to Los Angeles International Airport." The witness also recalled that the passengers around him were not very nervous at the time, and applauded when the plane landed smoothly.
According to foreign media reports, the tire lost during United Airlines flight came from the left main landing gear, located at the rearmost position on the inner side of the main landing gear.
Senior Captain Chen Jianguo told Interface News that it is relatively rare for tires to be lost during flight. However, he also mentioned that losing one tire has little impact on flight safety, while the other tires are sufficient to support the safe landing of the aircraft. "Aircraft tires are usually paired with two wheels, with Boeing 777 having a larger number of main landing gear tires, consisting of six wheels per set."
Captain Chen Jianguo told Interface News that if a single tire is lost during flight and does not affect the operation of other systems, the crew can reduce the weight and land by hovering or releasing fuel.
Interface News learned that unlike the previous Alaska Airlines 737MAX9 hatch detachment incident, the 737MAX9 was a new aircraft delivered less than three months ago. The rare aviation accident of cabin door detachment has exposed the non-compliance of quality control in the manufacturing of Boeing 737MAX series aircraft.
"United Airlines' Boeing 777 aircraft is as old as 22 years, which means it has been in operation for more than 20 years. The loss of tires cannot be directly attributed to production quality issues. The more likely reason is United Airlines' maintenance and repair of the aircraft." A maintenance engineer told Interface News that in terms of this malfunction alone, preliminary judgment may be that the nuts on the landing gear axle were not installed properly, or cracks appeared on the axle over time, Finally, it resulted in axle breakage and tire loss.
Interface News has noticed that United Airlines has experienced multiple unsafe incidents in the past month.
According to CCTV news, on February 19th local time, a United Airlines Boeing 757 aircraft flying from San Francisco to Boston discovered damage to one wing during its flight and made an emergency landing in Denver. United Airlines reported that there were 165 passengers on board, who made an emergency landing in Denver due to issues with the components used for takeoff and landing at the leading edge of the wings. No passengers were injured in the incident. On March 4th local time, a United Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft flying from Houston, Texas to Fort Myers, Florida was forced to return due to one of its engines catching fire. At that time, there were 167 passengers on board, but fortunately no one was injured.