United Airlines said a jet lost a landing gear wheel while taking off from Los Angeles but was able to land safely at its intended destination of Denver with no injuries.
“The wheels have been recovered in Los Angeles and we are investigating the cause of this incident,” United said in a statement Monday. It was the airline’s second such incident this year.
The plane involved in Monday’s incident was a nearly 30-year-old Boeing 757-200 with 174 passengers and seven crew members on board, according to FlightRadar24. Boeing ended 757 production in 2004.
In March this year, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 jet bound for Japan lost a tire in mid-air after taking off from San Francisco and landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport.
The wheel landed on a car in the airport employee parking lot, breaking the window but no one was injured.
Monday’s incident is the latest in a series of incidents involving United Airlines planes. In March, a plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport due to hydraulic problems. Elsewhere that month, another plane rolled off a taxiway onto a grassy field while trying to land in Houston.
Also in March, bright flames suddenly erupted from the engine of United Airlines Flight 1118, a Boeing 737-900, on a flight carrying 167 passengers from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida. , made an emergency landing in Houston.
Problems with U.S. flights hit the headlines in January when a door jam blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in mid-air shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, forcing it to make an emergency landing. Many people were injured.
In April, United blamed the incident for a $200m (£161m) hit in revenue in the first three months of the year, saying a mid-flight blowout at rival Alaska Airlines forced the airline to ground many of its Boeing planes , to the loss.
Maya Young, Jack Simpson, Reuters and The Associated Press
