United plane makes emergency landing after losing wheel during takeoff

San Francisco. A United Airlines passenger plane bound for Japan made an emergency landing in Los Angeles on Thursday after losing a tire while taking off from San Francisco.

The video shows one of the six tires on the plane’s left main landing gear burst seconds after takeoff. The tire landed in an employee parking lot at San Francisco International Airport, where it struck a car and broke its rear window before hitting a fence and coming to a stop in a neighboring parking lot.

Airport spokesman Doug Yackel said there were no injuries.

Fire trucks were not needed at Los Angeles International Airport as the Boeing 777 landed without incident and stopped two-thirds of the way down the runway. Airport spokesman Day Levin said the plane landed safely.

After this it was pulled.

United said there were 235 passengers and 14 crew members on board the flight. The airline said the plane, manufactured in 2002, was designed to land safely with missing or damaged tires. United said passengers would be transferred to another plane for the remainder of the trip.

The Boeing 777 has six tires on each of the two main landing gears. Video of Flight 35’s departure shows how the plane loses one of the six tires of its left main landing gear just seconds after takeoff.

Aviation experts say tire failure is rare and does not indicate a major safety problem.

Alan Price, former chief pilot for Delta Air Lines, said, “In aviation, we never want a single point of failure if they can be avoided, and this is a good example.”

“The remaining tires are fully capable of supporting the load,” he said.

Price said loose tires are typically a maintenance issue, not a problem created by the manufacturer.

John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California, agreed. “I don’t see any impact on Boeing, because it was a United maintenance crew that changed the tire,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the matter, according to its spokesman Tony Molinaro.