Passengers saw plane wheel fall off
10.11.11
Passengers saw a wheel fall off a Flybe plane as it took off in March from Exeter to fly to Newcastle Airport. The captain returned to Exeter and used the emergency brake and significant amounts of right rudder to land the plane safely. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said the wheel's outer bearing had seized, causing the incident.
A mayday alert was sent to air traffic controllers and after circling the airport for over an hour, the 39 passengers on the Bombardier Q400 were evenly distributed in the brace position as the captain attempted to land the plane. As it touched down, it veered to the left but the captain held the aircraft steady and the passengers were able to disembark through the front left door.
The AAIB report said the wheel's outer bearing had seized and ‘consequential damage had allowed the wheel to detach’. The captain had inspected the right main landing gear before the flight and had not noticed any abnormalities, but would not have been able to see the problem. Some passengers saw the wheel fall as the plane's landing gear retracted just after take off, but ‘they did not inform the cabin crew at this point’, the report said !
Air traffic control contacted the flight crew and when the captain asked the senior stewardess to inspect the right landing gear area, she was then told that the wheel had fallen off by passengers.
The decision was taken to return to Exeter using the ‘alternate landing gear extension’ procedure. The crew used a ‘left-wing-down’ technique ensuring the left main wheels touched down on the runway first, with the remaining right main wheel then being lowered onto the runway as gently as possible.
Several safety actions had been initiated following the incident.
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