A Boeing 777 United Airlines lost a wheel while taking off from San Francisco. The plane with around 250 people on board, which was actually supposed to fly to Japan, landed in Los Angeles a little later on Thursday (local time). United stressed that passenger planes are designed to land with missing or damaged tires. A Boeing 777 has six wheels on each side under the wings. On the ground, the torn off wheel damaged several cars in a parking lot next to the airport, as seen on TV images. United said it would contact the owners and look into the matter.
Boeing is currently increasingly in the spotlight after it launched an almost new machine of this type at the beginning of January 737-9 Max Lost a part of the fuselage during the climb after takeoff. According to initial investigations, the US accident investigation authority NTSB assumes that four fastening bolts were missing from the torn out fuselage fragment. However, problems with tires that are constantly exposed to extreme loads do occur from time to time on aircraft from various manufacturers and airlines. A Boeing lost in January 757 a bike shortly before takeoff in Atlanta and in February an Airbus had to A319 end up in Brazil with a missing tire.