Earlier this week, it emerged that a wheel fell off a LATAM Airbus A319 in Sao Paulo, forcing a diversion to a maintenance base as a result.
Wheel Falls Off LATAM Airbus A319 in Sao Paulo…
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LATAM flight LA3923 is a routine scheduled flight between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo Congonhas, with the affected rotation being operated by PT-TMO.
As per data from Planespotters.net, PT-TMO is a 13.1 year old Airbus A319-132 that was delivered to LAN Airlines back in January 2011.
The aircraft was transferred over to the Ecuador subsidiary in May 2014, before being part of the LATAM name in May 2016, where it went over to the Brazilian subsidiary by February 2017.
Of the A319-100 variant, LATAM Airlines Brasil has 19 of them, of which 17 are in active service and two are currently parked, offering an average fleet age of 14.3 years.
LA3923 departed Rio de Janeiro at 1220 local time on February 6, bound for Sao Paulo Congonhas initially.
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood that when the aircraft was descending into Congonhas, it was noticed that the inboard left wheel couldn’t be detected.
From there, the decision was made to divert to nearby Guarulhos as the airline has a maintenance facility there.
Air traffic control confirmed that the wheel was missing at first following a low pass, and then the aircraft landed safely into Guarulhos following the incident.
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