(Los Angeles) A Boeing plane lost a tire during takeoff at Los Angeles airport on Monday, a new embarrassing chapter for the US planemaker, which has been piling up setbacks and technical glitches.
United Airlines, the American company that operated the flight, confirmed the incident in a press release.
“The wheel was recovered in Los Angeles and we are investigating the cause of the incident,” he announced.
The Boeing 757-200 was carrying 174 passengers and seven crew members and was en route to Denver, Colorado.
Landed undamaged 25 minutes late despite missing wheel.
The plane was delivered to the company 30 years ago, in 1994, a Boeing spokesman said.
The airliner has discontinued production of the 757-200 model since 2004.
The incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch a new investigation.
This comes at a time when Boeing has been facing a series of production and quality problems for months, which have damaged its reputation.
The company has been under close watch since an incident on Jan. 5, which turned out to be the last: a door came loose in the middle of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight.
The FAA on Monday requested an “immediate” inspection of more than 2,600 737 family aircraft in the United States for a problem with connecting oxygen generators.
Troubled, the planemaker offered a “comprehensive plan” to reconnect with the standard at the end of May.
He has struck a deal with the US Justice Department to avoid an embarrassing trial in the 2018 and 2019 crashes of two 737 MAX 8 planes that killed 346 people.
Boeing has already signed a plea deal in 2021, paying $2.5 billion to avoid criminal charges against its executives.
But the Justice Department deemed it violated commitments in the agreement, particularly to improve its compliance and ethics program.
The new agreement reached Sunday provides for $243.6 million in additional penalties and at least $455 million investment in “compliance and safety programs.”
