ATLANTA — A Delta flight lost a nose wheel while preparing for takeoff from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Saturday morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Officials said it happened on Delta Air Lines Flight 982 around 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 20. The flight was taxiing for departure when the tire came loose from the landing gear, a spokesperson for Delta Air Lines said in a statement.
"All customers and their bags were removed from the aircraft, transferred to the gate and onto a replacement aircraft. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," Delta Air Lines added.
In total, Delta said there were 172 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots onboard the flight. According to the FAA, the plane was a Boeing 757 and it was headed to El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Columbia.
The pilot of Delta 982 realized there might be a problem when the pilot in one of the planes that were in line behind him spoke up on the radio.
“One of your nose tires just came off; it just rolled off the runway behind you,” said the pilot, as heard on LiveATC.net.
And that pilot told the tower, “He totally lost that tire.”
The tower responded, “Roger, thank you. Wheel and tire?”
“The wheel and tire.”
This video briefly shows the nose gear after the wheel came off. Atlanta pilot and aviation attorney Alan Armstrong said Tuesday that a wheel falling off of a plane during slow taxiing may not sound as serious as, for example, the Alaska Airlines’ door-plug panel blowing off in mid-flight. But Armstrong said, “It’s a very big deal. It’s dangerous... The aircraft is required to be airworthy, and with one tire missing, it's not airworthy.”
Boeing is not commenting.
“The real concern would be if that tire came off while in flight, and you attempted to affect a landing without it, with just the one remaining tire,” Armstrong said. “The absorption quality of the nose gear has been reduced by 50%. Now, if you do it, that means that that stress has got to go someplace. If there's no time to absorb that stress, it's going to go into the nose wheel. That could present structural problems for the aircraft upon landing.”
Boeing is already under investigation after the door-plug panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew off of an Alaskan Airlines plane in mid-flight.
Earlier this month, the engine on a Boeing 747 cargo plane caught fire moments after taking off from Miami, although the engine was manufactured by G.E., not by Boeing.
Armstrong said that with rigorous maintenance and inspections, there is no reason for parts of planes to break off or catch fire.
“It certainly calls into question whether we're getting the level of inspection and rigorous inspections that we expect in airline safety,” Armstrong said. “I think that's the question that we have before us.”
The wheel was quickly found; it had rolled off of the runway and kept rolling down an embankment next to the runway.
The FAA and Delta are investigating what caused the wheel to come off the plane.
