San Francisco – A United Airlines jetliner which was bound for Japan was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles on Thursday after the aircraft lost a tyre while taking off from San Francisco. In the videos that are circulating online, the plane can be seen losing one of the six tyres in mid-air as it took off. According to ABC News, the tyre eventually landed in an employee parking lot at San Francisco International Airport, where it managed to smash into a car and shatter its back window before breaking through a fence and coming to a stop in a neighbouring lot. The authorities assured that no one was injured in the incident.

While the authorities stationed fire engines at the Los Angeles International Airport, they weren't needed eventually after the aircraft made a safe landing. According to ABC News, the Boeing 777 stopped about two-thirds of the way down a runway. After landing, the aircraft was then towed away for inspection, Airport spokesman Dae Levine told local reporters. 

What is it all about? 

During the Thursday incident, the aircraft was carrying 235 passengers and a crew of 14 people. However, the authorities assured that the incident left no one injured. Meanwhile, the airline mentioned that the plane was built in 2002 and was designed to land safely with missing or damaged tyres. After the safe landing, the passengers were smoothly moved to another plane for the rest of the trip. It is important to note that Boeing 777s have six tyres on each of the two main landing gears. Aviation experts later told ABC News that planes losing tyres is a rare occurrence and is not indicative of a larger safety issue. “In aviation, we never want to have single points of failure if they can be avoided, and this is a case in point,” said Alan Price, a former chief pilot for Delta Air Lines told ABC News. “The remaining tyres are fully capable of handling the load,” he added. Price mentioned that losing tire is normally a maintenance issue and not a problem created by the manufacturer.