United Airlines said there were 249 people on board the plane bound for Osaka.
Los Angeles, United States:
A Boeing 777 bound for Japan was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff Thursday, after a wheel fell off and landed in the airport parking lot.
Video posted online shows the wheel falling off seconds after the United Airlines plane took off from the ground at San Francisco International Airport.
The wheel bounced into a parking lot used by airport employees, and airport officials said several cars were damaged, local website KRON4 reported.
✈️ United flight UA35 was diverted to Los Angeles today after losing a wheel on takeoff 🚨 via @FlightEmergency
Scenery #UA35Data in
https://t.co/F63EfWkMANpic.twitter.com/0bSSQE6UKu— Radar Box (@RadarBoxCom) March 7, 2024
United Airlines said there were 249 people on board the plane bound for Osaka.
Boeing has faced a series of quality control issues, most recently in a disturbing incident in January when a door-sized panel of a Boeing 737 Max 9 exploded from the fuselage after the plane took off in Portland, Oregon.
No one was seriously hurt in the incident, which led to the grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft for 19 days.
US regulators last week gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to address quality control issues, with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration saying the company must “commit to real, deep improvements.”
United said the Boeing 777 has six wheels on each of the main landing struts, and is designed to land safely if some of them are lost or damaged.
The flight was diverted to Los Angeles, where it landed safely.
The airline said passengers were expected to be on their way again later Thursday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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