Boeing at It Again: United Airlines Plane Loses Wheel During Takeoff

In a long series of Boeing woes, one of the company’s 757-200 aircraft lost a wheel during takeoff in Los Angeles. According to Flightradar 24, the the Flight 1001 plane, operated by United Airlines, was carrying 174 passengers and seven crew members. 

Boeing has been at the center of several high-profile malfunctions this year, including lost wheels, engine failures, and blown-out door plugs. Boeing has said that “it has taken important steps to foster a safety culture,” and incidents that have occurred might not be Boeing’s responsibility but rather the responsibility of the airlines that operate and maintain the aircraft. 

The mishap comes just days after the Justice Department announced Boeing would plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge from two deadly crashes of its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew and will cough up a $243.6 million fine. The plea deal was in response to the two crashes. One in Indonesia, where Lion Air pilots did not know about the flight-control software that could push the nose of the plane down without their input. The second was in Ethiopia, where Ethiopian Airlines knew about the software but were not able to control the plane when the software activated due to information about a faulty sensor.

Read more at The Daily Beast.