THIS is the moment a wheel came flying off a fully loaded Boeing 757 aircraft just seconds after taking off from Los Angeles airport.
Shocking footage captured the main landing gear wheel rolling down the tarmac as it fell off from the jet mid-air – just one day after the aviation giant agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges.
The commercial jet was packed with 174 passengers as well as seven crew members as it took off for Denver.
It is understood the plane reached its final destination and landed safely – and no injuries were reported onboard the aircraft after the terrifying blunder.
United Airlines told The Sun: “United Flight 1001 landed safely in Denver after losing one wheel on takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport.
“The wheel has been recovered in Los Angeles, and we are investigating what caused this event.”
The Sun has reached out to Boeing for comments.
It is yet another shocking aviation incident involving Boeing which has been at the centre of scrutiny for many months due to safety malfunctions.
In a similar incident that occurred in March, another Boeing jet operated by United Airlines lost its main wheel in mid-air.
Shocking video showed how multiple cars were damaged after the tyre dropped from the sky during a take-off from San Francisco airport.
The United Airlines Flight UA35 from the US to Osaka, Japan was forced to land at Los Angeles International Airport in California after the terrifying blunder.
Emergency services were on standby at LAX Airport as the plane made an uneventful landing and stopped about two-thirds of the way down a runway.
The terrifying incident comes just a day after the embattled aviation giant agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud conspiracy charges after two fatal 737 MAX crashes in the space of five months.
The company is now set to pay a £190 million fine ($243.6 USD) to resolve a U.S Justice Department investigation into the two crashes
The plea deal, which requires a judge’s approval, would brand the planemaker a convicted felon in connection with crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 which killed 346 people.
The crash involved a Boeing 737 Max plane operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air – and the incident killed all 189 people onboard.
Just months later, an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed, killing all 157 passengers and crew.
A Boeing spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms.”
As part of the deal, the planemaker agreed to spend at least $455 million over the next three years to boost safety and compliance programs.
However, the victim’s families criticised the swift deal, as they had hoped to see Boeing face a trial and suffer harsher financial consequences.
Earlier in May, shocking footage emerged of panicked passengers fleeing a burning plane after it skidded off the runway, in the third Boeing crash in two days.
Footage shows the Boeing 737 jet on fire as terrified passengers are jumping to the ground in the Dakar airport in Senegal.
The Transair flight carrying 78 passengers, reportedly experienced a hydraulic issue before the problematic landing at Blaise Diagne Airport.
The incident happened in the morning after the plane’s left wing and engine reportedly caught fire after the plane took off from Bamako Airport.
All 73 passengers were evacuated with fifteen of them being left injured- four of them seriously.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, a Boeing 737 Max plummeted nearly 27,000 ft in minutes, injuring 17 passengers and leaving them scrambling for oxygen masks.
The Korean Air Boeing 737 Max 8 departed from Incheon International Airport, near South Korean capital Seoul, at 4.45pm on Saturday for a trip to Taiwan.
But before it could make it to Taichung International Airport, a fault with pressure meant the plane dropped 26,900ft in just 15 minutes.
The staggering drop, which was recorded on FlightRadar, took place as the plane soared across Jeju – South Korea’s largest island.
Around 50 minutes into the flight, the plane suffered a pressure drop, according to local outlet JoongAng Daily.
BOEING has found itself at the centre of increasingly concerning reports in recent months thanks to alleged malfunctions on some of its planes.
