A tire fell off of a United Airlines flight in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon and damaged multiple cars in a nearby parking lot.
United Flight 35, which was supposed to be headed to Japan, landed safely in Los Angeles after the incident, according to a local NBC News affiliate. The Boeing 777-200 has six tires on its two sets of rear landing gear.
There were 249 people on board, including passengers, pilots, and flight attendants.
WATCH:
here is video of a tire falling off a united flight today at SFO
this comes one month after a wheel fell off a Delta plane in atlanta just prior to takeoff pic.twitter.com/OrednBxQ7g
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) March 7, 2024
Additional footage of car damage pic.twitter.com/ReK06dcFnp
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) March 7, 2024
This is the second major incident from just this week that the airline has had to deal with.
A United Airlines flight that took off from Houston to Fort Myers on Monday was forced to turn around after one of its engines erupted in flames.
United Flight 1118 was in the air less than 15 minutes before it had to turn around, according to data from FlightAware.
“United flight 1118 returned to Houston shortly after takeoff due to an engine issue,” the airline said in a statement. “The flight landed safely, and the passengers deplaned normally. We arranged for a new aircraft to take our customers to their destination, which departed for Fort Myers later that evening.”
The FAA is investigating a mechanical issue on a United Airlines flight that caused flames to shoot from the rear of an engine minutes after takeoff on Monday. https://t.co/jrwnIglEGT pic.twitter.com/8VoCBoDHfk
— ABC News (@ABC) March 7, 2024
The airline only offered passengers a $15 meal voucher and a $200 travel credit for experiencing the traumatic ordeal.
“I remember there was just this bright, flashing light that came through the window, and it sounded like a bomb went off, and then it was just a strobe of fire out the window,” one passenger told ABC 13. “And then it just turned into chaos. People were screaming and crying and trying to figure out what was going on.”
Another passenger said that everyone thought that they were going to die and that he emailed his wife that he loved her and she should feel free to move on.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.
