A nose wheel fell off a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 passenger jet and rolled away as the plane lined up for takeoff over the weekend from Atlanta’s international airport in the US, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to a preliminary FAA notice, none of the 184 passengers or six crew onboard were hurt in the incident, which took place on Saturday at Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
The report said the aircraft was lining up and waiting for takeoff when the “nose wheel came off and rolled down the hill”.
Boeing 757 planes have two rubber nose wheel tyres positioned side by side and are checked before flight.
The aircraft had been scheduled to fly to Bogotá, Colombia, and Delta said the passengers were put on a replacement flight, according to the New York Times.
A Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 aircraft, similar to the one that lost a nose wheel. Photograph: Ivan Cholakov/Alamy
Boeing declined to comment and directed questions to the airline, the paper reported. The FAA said it was continuing its investigation of the incident.
There has been heightened scrutiny of the US-based aircraft manufacturer by federal regulators after a piece of fuselage fell off an Alaska Airlines flight midflight this month, leaving a gaping hole in a new Boeing 737 Max 9 jet.
The FAA has since recommended that airlines operating Boeing 737-900ER jets inspect door plugs to ensure they are properly secured. While the 900ER is not part of Boeing’s newer Max fleet, it has an identical mid-exit door plug design.
On Wednesday, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said the company would not let its aircraft fly unless its was sure of their safety. “We don’t put planes in the air that we don’t have 100% confidence in,” Calhoun told reporters in Washington DC, where he was meeting lawmakers.
With passenger concerns rising, Kayak, a leading online travel agent, has updated filters to allow customers to exclude flights that use Boeing’s troubled 737 Max planes.
Kayak introduced an aircraft filter in March 2019 but after the Alaska Airlines incident it reworked the setting, making it more prominent on the search page and adding the ability to distinguish between 737 Max 8 and Max 9 planes, since only the latter has been grounded by the FAA.