Again and again

Boeing plane loses landing gear tire after SFO takeoff

By Silas Valentino

A United flight lost a tire while taking off from San Francisco International Airport Thursday morning, and it fell on an airport employee parking lot.

United Airlines Flight 35 to Kansai International Airport in Japan lost a portion of its landing gear tire during takeoff around 11:35 a.m. SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told SFGATE that the debris fell onto an airport parking lot used by SFO staff. There were no injuries, and the airport’s runway was briefly closed to clear debris. It has since reopened, Yakel said.

The United flight was diverted to Los Angeles International Airport. A spokesperson for the airline said after landing at LAX, the airline will arrange a new aircraft to continue the trip to Osaka.

The aircraft used for the flight is a Boeing 777-200, which has six tires on each of its two main landing gear struts. The United spokesperson noted that the aircraft is designed to land with missing or damaged tires. 

The incident at SFO continues an unfortunate trend in which faulty Boeing aircraft create a travel mishap. Following a blown fuselage that left a hole on the side of a Boeing 737 Max 9 flight from Alaska Airlines in January, certain flyers have said they are changing their tickets to avoid the company’s 737 Max 9 planes.