Late last night UK time, a wheel fell off a United Airlines Boeing 777 shortly after departure from San Francisco Airport.
This affected UA35, which was originally bound for a Pacific hop across to Osaka in Japan.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
UA35 – San Francisco to Osaka…
United Airlines flight UA35 is a routine scheduled flight between San Francisco and Osaka.
The aircraft involved in this wheel exit incident was N226UA.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N226UA is a 22.2 year old Boeing 777-222ER that was delivered to the airline in January 2002.
Of that particular variant of aircraft, United Airlines has 74 of them in the fleet, of which 67 are in active service and six are parked.
The variant of aircraft has an average fleet age of 24.8 years.
UA35 departed San Francisco at 1053 local time, where moments after departure, the wheel fell off.
This wasn’t observed at first, with the crew initially climbing out towards Osaka.
Upon nearing Los Angeles, a hard u-turn was made and subsequent descent came with that as well.
The choice was to divert to Los Angeles, where the aircraft landed safely after a total of 2 hours and 47 minutes in flight.
Safe Landing Made In Los Angeles…
United Airlines flight UA35, operated by the Boeing 777, was subsequently towed to the gate at Los Angeles following the wheel incident in San Francisco.
This was to ensure no further damage was made, with the tug able to take safety of the aircraft.
Furthermore, it is unclear currently what made the wheel fall off, but that will no doubt be investigated.
It is also unclear when the United Airlines 777 will depart Los Angeles again following this incident.
Destruction Seen in SFO…
The wheel that fell off the United Airlines Boeing 777 landed in a car park outside the airport.
Before it came to a stop, a few cars were severely damaged by the impact and speed.
Such footage above highlights this, with the police putting tape around the wheel itself.
Events like this have happened before, but when it does, it can cause significant damage to surroundings.
All eyes will be on the investigation into why this happened.
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